: As I stand before you, I am reminded of the perceptive words of Lord Keynes on the positive social role of private enterprise in the 19th century Europe. Writing in The Economic Consequences of Peace , in the year 1925 I believe, Lord Keynes said: “The new rich of the 19th century were not brought up to large expenditures, and preferred the power which investment gave them to the pleasures of immediate consumption. If the rich had spent their new wealth on their own enjoyments, the world would long ago have found such a régime intolerable. But like bees (these captains of industry) they saved and accumulated, not less to the advantage of the whole community... (they) were allowed to call the best part of the cake theirs and were theoretically free to consume it, on the tacit underlying condition that they consumed very little of it in practice. The duty of `saving’ became nine-tenths of virtue and the growth of the cake the object of true religion.” That is how modern capitalism has developed as a powerful entity in transforming social, economic and political scene all over.
When I read about the growing number of Indian millionaires and billionaires, about Indian companies buying multinationals abroad, about our clogged airports, about the real estate boom, about new holiday destinations, about soaring CEO compensations, I know that you have benefited from the growth process. I appreciate the fact that a corporate entity’s primary responsibility is to its shareholders and to its employees. Your businesses have to be globally competitive. However, even to win this race, you must work in a harmonious environment.
The time has come for the better-off sections of our society to understand the need to make our growth process more inclusive; to eschew conspicuous consumption; to save more and waste less; to care for those who are less privileged and less well-off; to be role models of probity, moderation and charity.
I invite corporate India to be a partner in making ours a more humane and just society. We need a new Partnership for Inclusive Growth based on, as I would describe it, a Ten-Point Social Charter.
PM Manmohan Singh
