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The Rediff Business Interview/ Lord Swraj Paul

'Foreign investment alone won't make India strong'

Lord Swraj Paul is the kind of man legends are made of. He began his entrepreneurial life in the United Kingdom in the early 1970s with borrowed funds. Today he is said to be richer than the Queen of England, thanks to the unending success of his Caparo group of companies. He heads the largest family-owned business in the UK and operates in five countries. In 1996, he became one of the few Indians to make it to Britain's House of Lords.

Lord Paul was in India recently to address a few seminars. After one such lecture in Bombay, he spoke briefly with Chris Ann Fichardo on why corporate India needs to become more transparent and more accountable than it is now.

Indians seem to be more successful abroad than in India. Why?

They have to work in a competitive society, there is no government to bail you out so you have to work hard with integrity and you succeed. Indians, in my view, are very intelligent people: to give an example, 80 million Indians abroad have the same gross national product as the 980 million in India. So people have the ability but somehow we are not getting our act together.

What has failed the Indians -- the government or the law?

Our leadership has failed to make us feel that honesty pays. It's no use to blame the government alone, we need to get up every morning and ask ourselves -- 'have we done our duty?'

NRI investment in the country has declined considerably. What do you attribute this decline to?

It has nothing to do with the swadeshi policy -- there is nothing wrong with the swadeshi policy. India will be made strong by Indians -- it won't become strong by foreign investment alone.

What is your understanding of swadeshi?

I feel swadeshi is that which makes things efficient, cost-effective and gives the benefit to the poor man.

How effective has India's liberalisation process been?

Not fast enough -- without quick liberalisation, the poor man will not get any benefit, only the rich will reap the benefits.

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