Uday Kotak lists five focus areas for India

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Uday Kotak, Managing Director and CEO, Kotak Mahindra Bank, has listed five things India needs to prioritise for the remainder of this year. The five things are vaccination, healthcare capacity for managing a potential third wave of the pandemic, schooling, jobs and structural inflation, he said in a tweet. Kotak, who is also the president of Confederation of Indian Industry, had earlier said India’s economy urgently needs increased fiscal spending from the government to support businesses that have suffered stress from the Covid-19-related disruptions, as well as households and individuals worst hit by the pandemic.

What are the 5 big things we in India need to prioritise on in balance period of 2021? 1) vaccination 2) healthcare capacity building for wave 3 risk and beyond 3) schooling 4) jobs 5) structural inflation

— Uday Kotak (@udaykotak) July 18, 2021

Earlier views

Kotak had also said the second wave of Covid-19 has shook the country, particularly in April and May.

Further he had also suggested the government to increase the quantum of the credit guarantee scheme of providing collateral-free loans to small businesses from Rs 3 lakh crore to Rs 5 lakh crore in the same interview.

This was in addition to the Rs 3 lakh crore Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS) as part of the Atmanirbhar Bharat package.

On the GDP impact by the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic Kotak had lowered his initial expectations of 11% growth in the current fiscal on the lower base of the previous fiscal.

In early May, the CII president had asked for highest-level response measures to address the rising wave of Covid-19 cases, as currently safeguarding lives is key to cut the transmission links.

Capital markets

In early April, Uday Kotak said that capital markets is the engine for India’s growth and suggested policy makers to keep this in mind and it needs to be nurtured and sustained.

He also added that capital markets supported the economy and helped the corporates raise much-needed funds for sustenance. Those who had capital irrespective of sectors were able to survive the turbulent time.