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Mahindra & Mahindra pitches for more SEZs
A FORCEFUL plea for creating more special economic zones (SEZs) to drive India’s economic growth was made at the Fortune Global Forum by industrialist Anand Mahindra here on Tuesday. “The answer lies in SEZs. That’s the route China took to its development,” Mahindra & Mahindra’s MD contended during a session on ‘India Inc goes global’. “SEZs act like pebbles in a lake. They create wider concentric circles that drive development,” Mahindra said. “We need to create a situation where, in 5 to 10 years, all of India will look like a SEZ,” he added. Focusing on the subject, Mahindra ascribed the increasing mergers and acquisitions by India Inc abroad to a variety of factors. “One is the Charles Atlas syndrome. We were previously seen to be also-rans. Then, we look in the mirror and see a new body and want to go out and kick sand. The other is the syndrome of impatience; that we have a lot of catching up to do. Then, there is the strengthening rupee. The corollary of it is that we don’t know how long the rupee will remain strong, and let’s go out now,” Mahindra explained. He then added a word of caution: “What is your long-term vision? Do you want to create the world’s largest airline or are you focusing on customer comfort?”