London: Indians
will celebrate if Bharti Airtel Limited and
South African telecom operator MTN Group strike
a deal, Minister of State for Industry Ashwani
Kumar told a large gathering of investors
on Monday. "Indian companies are now
firmly established on the world stage, and
the Bhart-MTN talks are only the latest example
of this," Kumar said while launching
a two-day India Investors Summit in London.
"We'll celebrate if Bharti establishes
a presence." Bharti, the leading mobile
operator in India, has been in talks with
MTN in London for a possible merger that would
create the world's sixth largest mobile operator,
with more than 130 million subscribers in
nearly two dozen countries.
Over 350 of the world's
leading boardroom executives and steering
industry professionals have gathered in the
British capital to map out the core areas
of investment and discuss the opportunities
and challenges presented by India at the investors'
summit.
The opening day was addressed
by David Lewis, Lord Mayor of the City of
London, Tata Sons Executive Director Alan
Rosling and real estate fund managers Trikona
Capital MD Rak Chugh among others. Kumar said
that despite a "perceived global slowdown",
India's economic competitiveness would continue
- the country was insulated because of strong
domestic consumption and savings.
India's foreign exchange
reserves stood at $320 billion and the economy
was poised to grow at over 8 percent. In the
last year alone, the country had attracted
$29 billion in foreign direct investment,
he added.
Kumar said, "Despite
an imported inflation arising from high oil
and food prices we have been able to handle
the global pressure well. We have managed
the political economy." Indian food prices
are 30 per cent lower than global prices,
partly as a result of government subsidies,
he said.
However, Kumar also indicated
there were factors that were plainly out of
India's control, such as the use of agricultural
land for biofuels.
The situation may have
been different, "If people had not taken
over land meant for agriculture for example,"
said Kumar. Kumar said 490 million Indians
had come out of poverty in the last 20 years,
and that 290 million more were expected to
follow by 2020
