Indian Politics- Sensitive to economics

Indian politicians- getting to work.
An opposition leader taking the pains to meet corporate world to get info about present economic crisis. This is unheard in Indian context, but is quite prevalent in the western democracies (Obama/Mc Cain were meeting financial and international leaders)

Advani to meet India Inc over financial crisis
17 Nov 2008, 0243 hrs IST, ET Bureau

NEW DELHI: As the Indian economy flounders under the impact of the global meltdown, Mr L K Advani, the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate, will on

Thursday meet corporate bigwigs in an attempt to get a feedback on the situation confronting the country and ways to get out of the mess.

Corporate czars, representing the who’s who of the Indian industry, have been sent out invites to attend the meeting in what is being seen as an attempt by the BJP to get a first-hand account of the economic scene and devise a road map to wriggle out of the crisis.

The meeting is being seen as part of the larger exercise being undertaken by the party to prepare a blueprint for the revival of the Indian economy. Former Union ministers Jaswant Singh, Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie have been entrusted with the job.

Among those who are expected to attend the Thursday meeting are the Ambani brothers, Mukesh and Anil, Kumarmangalam Birla, Rahul Bajaj, Shashi Ruia, Baba Kalyani, Nusli Wadia and Jaiprakash Gaur. Heads of the three leading industry chambers—K V Kamath (CII), Rajeev Chandrasekhar (FICCI) and Sajjan Jindal (Assocham) are expected to use the opportunity to share their understanding of the crisis with Mr Advani.

Invitations have been sent out to TATA group chairman Ratan Tata, Infosys executive co-chairman Nandan Nilekani and HDFC chairman Deepak Parekh, but they have expressed their regret as they’d be out of the country as part of their pre-planned engagements.

Former finance minister Yashwant Sinha, who’s part of the group assisting Mr Advani in scripting the show, told newspersons here on Sunday that the meeting shows that BJP was not just picking holes in the government’s economic policies, but was also keen on making constructive suggestions.

“The BJP, as the principal opposition party, has been reviewing certain economic policies and giving constructive suggestions to the government... A crisis has been building up due to faulty policies (of the UPA),’’ the former Union minister said, adding, “The global (economic) crisis, that erupted in September, has only multiplied India’s problems. Advani ji as leader of the opposition is meeting captains of trade to understand how they looked at the situation and later make suggestions to the government.’’

Besides Mr Sinha, the former deputy prime minister would be joined by his colleagues Arun Shourie and Jaswant Singh during the deliberations.