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• ET Now: We want to start off with what you believe is right now the mood in India Inc because at the ET Awards we got a sense that corporate India was probably looking for a lot more from the government in terms of policy push as opposed to what was happening in the last 6 months, which is commonly termed as policy paralysis. What is your sense? How confident are you of how the next 12 months would shape up?

• Anand Mahindra: Clearly there is a need for us to rebound and get back to a trajectory of growth that was far more robust than the one that we have now. At the same time, we have to acknowledge at some point that through these decades of reform that we have reached a level of threshold working, which in essence is much higher than the all levels of growth. So we have a number of solid institutions like the RBI which prevents this country from ever being seen as a basket case of going over the cliff and things in that threshold level seem to work. You always have small reforms that continue to go on such as the one that we saw recently where it was the investment in equities was made more liberal. So India works at a threshold level.

• What we really need right now is to get back to the orbit of 8% growth and this can happen fairly rapidly because the fundamentals of the economy are strong and remain unchanged whether they are about demographics or consumption story or about robust agriculture growth. These are unchanged and I see what is needed now is a signal both from the RBI that the trajectory of interest rates will be down. They have already said that we have reached a ceiling. We need perhaps some movement on interest rates downward. At least post the state elections, we do need some strong signals on key reform areas like power. We need some steps, some initiatives on infrastructure and if we get these combinations of signals and steps, you will see this economy turning around very rapidly and going back to the 8% growth track that you were on.

• ET Now: We have heard a number of corporate leaders saying that they are quite perturbed with the state of things around and they are thinking of making investments abroad, be it acquisitions, be it just making green field investments abroad, and not in India. You are not in the same camp?

• Anand Mahindra: Certainly not. When you make an investment abroad, at least at Mahindra when we make an investment abroad, it is part of an overall global strategy. Let us say we have 10 business areas for example in the group. Then in any part of that group if we invest abroad, it is because investing abroad is called for in that sector's strategy. It is part of an overall game plan, it is an overall piece of the puzzle. You do not go into an overseas area or stay within the domestic area as a reflex section or as a reaction.

• So as far as we are concerned, we continue to look at opportunities around the world, we time then depending on global swings, but the essential strategy is one that remains consistent and you have to have conviction in it. So if you have conviction for example that India is a growth story which it is and India is a good place to invest and if you look at the crowds behind me here, the Auto Expo, clearly there is huge consumption story building up here. Then why on earth would we look away from India?

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