• Four, resist excessive remuneration to promoters and senior executives and discourage conspicuous consumption. In a country with extreme poverty, industry needs to be moderate in the emolument levels it adopts. Rising income and wealth inequalities, if not matched by a corresponding rise of incomes across the nation, can lead to social unrest. The electronic media carries the lifestyles of the rich and famous into every village and slum. Media often highlights the vulgar display of their wealth. An area of great concern is the level of ostentatious expenditure on weddings and other family events. Such vulgarity insults the poverty of the less privileged, it is socially wasteful and it plants seeds of resentment in the minds of the have-nots

• Five, invest in people and their skills. Offer scholarships to promising young people. High rates of growth mean nothing for those who are unable to find employment. We must invest in skill-building and education to make our youth employable

• Six, desist from non-competitive behaviour. The operation of cartels by groups of companies to keep prices high must end. It is unacceptable to obstruct the forces of competition from having freer play. Cartels are a crime and go against the grain of an open economy. Even profit maximisation should be within the bounds of decency and greed. If a liberalised economy has to succeed, we must give full play to competitive forces and the private sector should show some self-restraint in this regard

... contd.