Congress Vice President, Rahul Gandhi on September 12, addressed students at the University of California, Berkeley, where he spoke on many issues including the India’s economy and the small and medium businesses.
Laying focus on the small and medium sector, Rahul Gandhi said that unlike China, India has to create jobs. “We cannot follow the model of massive factories controlled by a few,” he said. “Jobs in India will come from small and medium scale industries,” he further added.
Gandhi said that the central challenge for India is jobs, adding that roughly 12 million youth enter the job market annually. The small and medium enterprises sector is where jobs will come from. However, Gandhi added that currently, all the attention is paid to the top 100 companies.
“Everything is geared towards them, the banking systems are monopolised by them and the doors of government are always open to them.” “And laws are shaped by them,” he said. He also added that entrepreneurs running small and medium businesses are struggling to get bank loans. “They have no protection and no support. Small and medium businesses are the bedrock of India and the world’s innovation. Big businesses can easily manage the unpredictability of India. They are protected by their deep deep pockets and connections.”
Gandhi said he would like to carve out space for small and medium businesses and bring in experts from Silicon Valley and take these small and medium businesses and transforming them into global companies.
Gandhi also talked about demonetisation saying that small businesses were affected. “Millions of small businesses were simply wiped out as a result of the demonetisation, farmers and many who use cash were hit extremely hard. Agriculture is in deep distress and farmers suicides have skyrocketed across the country,” he said.
