It would have been highly appropriate if Goyal had also taken on India’s easily manipulable government for being part of highly corrupt practices of many of the business entrepreneurs, who influenced the government to take decisions for their individual benefits at the cost of the country and other local stakeholders. They were little interested in working hard to make India a globally competitive economy. The government allowed to get itself manipulated by those corrupt Indian business entrepreneurs to help build family empires for them

The government policies helped them syphon out funds and enjoy a kind of legal protection outside India against their financial mischiefs at home. Many of these entrepreneurs highly inflated their domestic project costs for their personal gains while their products and services turned uncompetitive in the market and needed further government assistance, including import duty support, to make them profitable ventures. They used the ‘hawala’ route and fabricated foreign trade invoices to build assets abroad. A top professional chartered accountant, Piyush Goyal may know them all.

The commerce minister was absolutely right when he said: ”Me, Myself and My company — we all need to go beyond this approach.” Goyal further said Indian industry would import ‘even if it helped them save just 10 paise in the finished cost of goods,’ and then lobby to avoid the levy of anti-dumping duties on such imports. Goyal said that “too much profit in a few hands can lead to a lot of problems for a country.” He urged industry leaders not to “let the greed of some deprive the need of many” and that business houses should introspect their commitment to India. Understandably, the minister avoided the government’s own questionable role over the years in supporting those ‘greedy’ business houses having little ‘commitment’ to the nation.

But, Goyal was not certainly right to exclusively take on the House of Tatas by name for being selfish even though he is specifically upset with the Tata group, which is among the companies that lobbied against the Modi government’s draft e-commerce policies. He asserted that the Tata Sons had opposed (e-commerce) rules framed by his ministry to help consumers. It is true that the Tatas have been engaged in making e-commerce plans for sometimes now and the industry group along with some others are known to have objected to some of the e-commerce rules which were announced in the month of June. The Tata group was said to be planning to launch an app that would integrate several of its top brands, but the proposed policy changes seem to have spooked it. Goyal said Tata's objection to the rules had hurt him.

Goyal’s criticism of the Tatas, the largest contributor to the BJP’s election fund, might have been particularly embarrassing to his party which received Rs 356 crores from the Tata-group controlled Progressive Electoral Trust in the financial year 2018-19 alone. This was the highest amount received by BJP from any corporate house in that period. Some think that the minister’s outburst against the Tatas may have been more of a ‘stage show’ with the knowledge of the industrial giant just to appease the Confederation of All India Traders, a strong pro-BJP trade lobby and the party’s important vote bank. The traders’ body was quick to welcome Goyal's stand, saying it was "highly unfortunate" that the Tatas were opposing government's e-commerce rules. Only a month ago, the Tatas were telling the government that the proposed e-commerce rules would have a major impact on its business and bar its joint venture partners like Starbucks from selling goods on Tata's shopping websites.

Unlike most other industrial houses, the Tatas have been generally outspoken about their occasional disagreement with government policies. The business house had in the past openly criticised national ruling parties and leading political satraps such as Indira Gandhi, Morarji Desai and George Fernandes on government policies. Time and again, such conflicts harmed the country’s No. 1 business group’s expansion programmes.

Yet, the group has been one of India’s top foreign exchange earners, led by Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Tata Steel and Tata Motors. Hopefully, the union commerce minister is fully appreciative and proud of the fact that TCS is the world’s largest information technology (IT) services company by market capitalisation ($169.2 billion) as of February, this year. The company operates in 149 locations across 46 countries. Automobile giant Mahindra & Mahindra and Aditya Birla group’s Hindalco Industries (Aluminium) are the only two other major net foreign exchange earners from the private sector out of India’s top ten enterprises.

In fact, the Modi government would do well to review the government-industry relations and take steps to help generate a nationalistic fervour among India’s business entrepreneurs on the lines of those in Japan, China, Germany, France, South Korea and Singapore among others. It may not be too late for the government to desist from taking actions that deliberately support those industrial houses that let “the greed of some deprive the need of many.” Goyal’s own ministry could expose some of those lobbyists by name who try to manipulate import tariffs and anti-dumping duties. Unfortunately, the government’s business policies continue to be influenced by a section of the industry who brag more about their personal wealth and global $ billionaire ranking more than the creation of national wealth and national pride. (IPA Service)