Milind Pant
Milind Pant has lived and worked in India, South Africa and Thailand. Currently, he is based at Shanghai. Milind is the President & COO of YUM China
In a USD 75 trillion world economy, India with almost 20% of global population has just over 2% contribution. On the other hand China, in the last three decades, has turbo charged growth to become 5X the size of the Indian economy. For all of India’s strengths, size, accomplishments, it remains a country that has punched well below it’s potential.
It is a mathematical certainty that in the coming decade India will become one of the exciting, fast growing large economies. This article presents seven ‘sutras’ or threads of thoughts on the ingredients required for India’s quest for global leadership:
1. Magnet for global capital, technology
The world is awash with capital. Brazil, Russia, South Africa (of BRICS) are sputtering. Global investment funds are on the lookout for the next growth market. In parallel, global companies are scanning the horizon for a low cost manufacturing alternative to China. Vietnam, Thailand are options but India has a much larger labor pool (& growing). It also has the bonus of a large domestic market, strong foundation in engineering, management talent plus a proven track record in adapting, developing new technology.
As India becomes an easier place to do business; with stable policy, tax and currency, it is destined to become a magnet for global capital, ideas, technology.
2. Achieve global scale
Global leadership requires global scale. In the Fortune 500, among the top 10, there are two American and three Chinese companies. China’s ICBC is the largest bank in the world by assets. For India, achieving global scale may require some deft pragmatism. Some of India’s largest companies- SBI, ONGC, Coal India, NTPC are state owned and need to be unleashed to build global capabilities, competitiveness and eventually scale.
In addition, India’s private sector has the platform of a large domestic market which, coupled with access to global capital and smart overseas acquisitions, has the potential to build world class companies.
3. Build iconic brands
Today, there is no Indian brand in the Interbrand Top 100 global list. Iconic brands are built on the foundation of great products. India has the potential to build big businesses, brands in new sectors likeDigital and the ones with distinct ‘Indianness’ such as movies, food, fashion. After all, five years back, it was unthinkable for Xiaomi, Huawei, Taobao, WeChat, Haier to embark on a quest to build global Chinese brands.
4. Turbo charged urbanization
China’s development in the last three decades has been driven by planned urbanization — adding 1% of urban population every year. Today, 55% of China’s population lives in cities that are connected with high speed bullet trains and highways.
India with its democratic credentials, inclusive society can lead the world with innovation in urban development, management and local government accountability. In China and America, city mayors compete for attracting businesses. Chengdu, a city in western, inland China claims to be the home of 230 Fortune 500 companies. Michael Bloomberg, one of America’s most celebrated entrepreneurs, ran NYC for a decade.
5. Nurture world class universities, technology labs
During the Gupta dynasty, some of the world’s best institutes of learning were in India. Before WWII, some of the top universities were in Germany. Today, the best ones are predominantly American. Silicon Valley has a symbiotic relationship with the web of universities in and around San Francisco.
None of India’s institutes feature in Top 10 or even 100. In order to be a global leader, IISc, IITs and FMS will need to step up to attract global faculty, students, private funds and a culture of restless creativity.
6. Innovate with social entrepreneurship
India cannot aspire to economic greatness with a fourth of India’s population below the (USD 1.25 per day) poverty line. On most of the Millennium Development Goal, India remains a laggard. The opportunity is for India to be a world leader in Social entrepreneurship — innovating new business models in nutrition, sanitation, education, agriculture, banking and more.
7. New model of local accountability
Despite all the above ingredients, India can ‘trip’ on its journey to economic greatness without fundamentally transforming the micro part of the government bureaucracy — the one that touches the everyday life of every entrepreneur. The district (akin to Swiss ‘canton’) is the smallest unit of administration in India. District administration must be accountable to all entrepreneurs (in fact, all citizens) to provide timely licensing, inspections, efficient services, utilities, maintenance of infrastructure — all with digital enabled transparency, accountability.
In modern times, China has had the fastest per capita GDP growth of 30X in the last 30 years! Now the stars are aligned for India’s marathon to economic greatness with disciplined planning, pragmatism and flawless execution of the seven ‘sutras’.
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