‘India is still the most difficult place in the world to do business’

: •Coomi Kapoor: What lessons have you learnt from your experience in the 80s, because even after that bad experience you’re willing to invest in India?

Lord Swraj Paul: I learned one thing at that time: never trust what you’re told. Even back then, it was the Indian Government and Indian industry who invited NRIs to invest here. But once you invest, they don’t even want to register the shares.

•Manish Chibber: How difficult is it to do business in India?

Lord Swraj Paul: India is still the most difficult place in the world to do business.

•Unni Rajen Shanker: We’ve seen 15-16 years of economic liberalisation. What still needs to be changed?

Lord Swraj Paul: There are obstructions in politics here and obstructions in business as well. They have one set of rules and values when they want to go outside India and another when they want people to come to India as investors or when they want a partnership with them. The experience of people all over the world is that partnerships in India are amongst the most difficult ones.

•Manish Chibber: Do you think that the Indian legal system and laws come in the way of a proper business environment?

Lord Swraj Paul: We have a good judicial system here and most of the judges are honest and decent people. Although it may take 25 years, a case is decided on merit. But the process is very difficult and nobody living abroad can spend that much time on a legal wrangle.

•Coomi Kapoor: In retrospect, don’t you think DCM and Escorts would have been wiser to accept your takeover offers?

Lord Swraj Paul: The shareholders would have been better off had they accepted the offers. The companies would have survived. We have taken the Caparo Group from a turnover of 14,000 pounds in 1968 to over a billion pounds this year. I don’t run the business anymore, my children run it. I get the glory — that is a marvelous position to be in.

•Dhiraj Nayyar: What is your view on the flamboyance of the new Indian businessman? Also, why is it that they do so little in terms of philanthropy?

Lord Swraj Paul: First of all, there are some who can afford flamboyance. I don’t have the money for it. The taxi is a luxury for me. I use a bus pass and that’s free because of my...

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