Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is a hot topic among the Indian business leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos. Calling AAP's emergence "a phenomenon" and its debut "spectacular", Infosys co-chairman Kris Gopalakrishnan said, "We will have to watch how AAP will mature."
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is a hot topic among the Indian business leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos. Calling AAP's emergence "a phenomenon" and its debut "spectacular", Infosys co-chairman Kris Gopalakrishnan said, "We will have to watch how AAP will mature." Mr Gopalakrishnan is also the president of the CII (Confederation of Indian Industry).
Chandrajit Banerjee, who is the director general of industry trade body CII, told NDTV's Shweta Rajpal Kohli that “we have to see how we can engage with AAP, in terms of understanding their perspective.” Arvind Kejriwal, the chief minister of Delhi, had sent alarm bells ringing recently when he said he will not allow foreign chains like Walmart and Tesco to set up multi-brand retail stores in Delhi, reversing the earlier Congress government's stand on the issue.
Naina Lal Kidwai, the country head of HSBC India and the former president of trade body Ficci, said, “AAP is very young and it obviously needs to grow up…hopefully they don't have too many mistakes along the way.” She added: AAP “heightened awareness of corruption. And to have an election fought on issues of corruption is huge”.
Kotak Mahindra Bank executive vice-chairman said AAP is yet to influence global investors' views on India though the year-old party has shaken up Indian politics. “I don't think the Aam Aadmi Party to the global audience is something which is really a factor. It's much more in the Indian DNA because it's a pretty dramatic change,” he said. The world is more concerned about governance issues of the country and “how do we move from a country where execution is a huge challenge to making execution the core of who we are," he added.
Manish Kejriwal, managing partner of Kedaara Capital, said, "The state election results confused foreign investors...AAP still needs to do a lot before global investors become comfortable." On the AAP government's move to offer subsidised power tariffs and free water for low usage residential customers, Mr Kejriwal warned that it was important to be inclusive, but not be populist.
