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Industry for clean, corruption-free govt

Mazumdar said that whatever happened to the Indian economy in the last few years was `totally man-made and not linked to any economic cycle`.

Kolkata: Leading industry bodies on Wednesday said a clean and a corruption-free government at the Centre could take India on a higher growth trajectory and prosperity. "People are absolutely fed up particularly in the last few years and have started questioning now. A corruption-free government is absolutely important for the betterment of the country," CII president-designate Sumit Mazumdar told the agency.
Mazumdar said that whatever happened to the Indian economy in the last few years was `totally man-made and not linked to any economic cycle`. "The downturn in the economy in the last few years was totally man-made and not linked to the global crisis. This was a result of lack of confidence in the government and business sentiments was adversely affected owing to rampant corruption", Mazumdar, who will hold the reins of the premier industry body next year, said. "One can notice that business sentiments have vastly improved after the announcement of elections. The Sensex has been rising, foreign investments are coming and the core sector is doing well," he said. Mazumdar said that this was because people were expecting a good government to come after the elections. He said since the last few years, infrastructure development had come to a standstill. The new government should come with a clear-cut plan on how to weed out corruption from the system. Assocham Senior Vice-President Sunil Kanoria also echoed similar views. "Corruption has to be weeded out as it has affected business sentiments adversely," Kanoria said. "This is not a simple process. For this, transparent and right policies should be in place," Kanoria added. He also said that the new government should review some of the laws which was passed by the previous government. "The retrospective clause in the Income Tax Act is detrimental to investment flows," he said. "No law should have retrospective effect and it should be either from now or from future," Kanoria added.