mumbai a good monsoon and the proposed passing of the gst bill will change the indian business landscape dramatically driving growth beyond double digits taking the markets to an alltime high and bringing back industrialists to open up their purse strings for investment adi godrej saidthe chairman of the 4billion godrej group told toi in an interview that while doubledigit growth would become a reality after 201718 when gst is introduced the response in the stock markets and the kickstarting of the investment cycle would be immediate while the markets have already started to take note of the potential of a good monsoon and higher corporate earnings over the last few trading sessions lack of demand high debt and unused capacities have so far kept companies away from making any large investments he termed the potential adoption of gst which seeks to bring in a national valueadded tax structure in india as the second biggest piece of reform after the liberalization of the indian economy during 1991 it will add 15 to 2 to the gdp and the economy will start picking up much earlier than the scheduled adoption date he said adding that companies would immediately go on their drawing boards to start investments as it will also fuel consumer demand the benefit would be felt from the very next day prices will go down and as a result demand would go up which will lift industrial production and tax collection for the government he said stressing on the need for its quick adoption the government has indicated that it would be in a position to pass the gst bill during the monsoon session of parliamententhused by the renewed prospects of gst adoption godrej is planning to add 8 to 10 new factories which could take investments of anywhere between rs 10 crore and rs 100 crore each he plans to make fresh investments in setting up two new projects under the group fmcg company godrej consumer products gcpl and a couple of agriproduct projects under godrej agrovet besides he also plans to grow through acquisitions as has been the norm over the last few yearsthough sales have been pulled down by weak demand particularly in rural areas because of two consecutive bad monsoons he feels things would start improving by the second half of this year while growth rate of its consumerfocused company gcpl was 15 to 25 in the last three to four years it came down to 9 last year and even further to 7 in the last quarter for the first time in a decade the volume growth at 12 is higher than value growth at 9 he said stressing on the dragdespite a sluggish demand gordej however has tasted success in real estate sales its been a record year for godrej properties and one reason could be the elimination of black money from the system he said indicating that the group keeps away from it godrej is happy with the reforms taken by the