For those of us Indians living outside the country, the 'India story' seems to have come of age over the last decade. Helped along by the famous 'BRIC' acronym, it is no longer a question of 'potential'. Across academia, corporate boardrooms and in the corridors of power the thinking has now moved on to execution, policy, profit and innovation. India, it is being said, has arrived.
And so it has. When I was growing up as a child in India during the eighties, in a country starved of heroes, we had to make do with Kapil Dev and his team for the most part. But an open economy has spawned a more dynamic society today with lots of good things to look up to. India's progress, I will say, has mirrored the rise of its very own cricket team - that is today - strong, respected, confident and no longer just dependent on its Kapil Devs to save the day!
While the technology community first realized 'the potential', it is the investments people that are driving the momentum. It is imperative for most global investors and businesses to have an India strategy or at least a view today - Global forums are replete with discussions of the immense opportunities in the country - investments that are also touted as being for greater good as they help raise the living standards of millions of people.
Thus when Montek Singh Ahluwalia and Raghuram Rajan chose instead to speak of the structural challenges facing the Indian economy at Davos, more so at a forum which was intended to discuss India's growth when compared to that of China's, it was a refreshing change in the tone. As an MBA student in London, I had gotten used to all the optimism that more often than not, tends to come from Indians themselves - Indians who pride their ability to 'jugaad' as a one stop approach to all our problems.
Not only was this Martin Wolf-led discussion panel vocal about some of the critical challenges facing the country, it was emphatic that there was not much time to get act our act together. Global investments would not wait while 'democracy' was used as an, again, one-stop excuse to justify the slow pace of important reforms.
The critical discussion continued the next day in the second conference; a Tim Brown-led discussion on design and innovation in India. On the panel, M.P Rajan gave some critical insights into the immense design talent on the ground in India, and lamented that, due to the lack of a coherent innovation ecosystem this talent and design capacity is not channelled optimally into innovation production
The two conferences were organised by the INDIA Future of Change consortium that is spearheading a multi-year campaign to raise awareness of India across the globe, especially in places where it can influence the general thinking of the international community. Interest in both the conferences was immense with Kirchner Museum, the venue, being filled to capacity. And it was not just critical thinking from the panel. The audience was involved too. J.N Godrej, who was in the audience for the innovation conference, was at one point asked to speak about Godrej's new refrigerator being designed for rural India.
On the lines of the upcoming Godrej refrigerator, both panels were emphatic that India's growth would eventually chart its own story much different from other emerging economies. As a nation, we have a unique society that will demand its own systems and products. In fact the panel pointed out that while initial momentum in areas such as design and manufacturing have been through replication of proven western offerings, a new trend of India innovating for its masses and then channelling 'frugal innovation' products to the rest of the world is now underway. And global brand leaders, no less than the likes of GE are already changing their organisations to be a part of this phenomenon.
During the week of the World Economic Forum, Davos is an immense concentration of the people who can influence decision making. It was not uncommon to walk down the main street in the evening and pass by CEO's of multi-billion dollar corporations. On my way to Davos from Zurich airport, I shared a car with a retired professor of urban planning from Beijing University in China. He was seventy years old, and this was the first time he had been invited to the forum. It struck me that while it was a great platform for leaders and academicians to network and share views, you had to bring something to the table yourself to be noticed and heard.
And Indian efforts such as those of the ‘India Future of Change’ and CII realized this. The main street in Davos was filled with advertisements for investing in India – a high profile campaign designed to impress and influence. The impact of course, is hard to measure, but I came away with a quiet sense of satisfaction that we were trying, hard.
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Nilav Bose is an MBA student of London Business School. An Indian national, he has lived and worked abroad for many years. He is passionate about Indian issues and was a part of the ‘India Future of Change' consortium at Davos. The views expressed here are his own.
And so it has. When I was growing up as a child in India during the eighties, in a country starved of heroes, we had to make do with Kapil Dev and his team for the most part. But an open economy has spawned a more dynamic society today with lots of good things to look up to. India's progress, I will say, has mirrored the rise of its very own cricket team - that is today - strong, respected, confident and no longer just dependent on its Kapil Devs to save the day!
While the technology community first realized 'the potential', it is the investments people that are driving the momentum. It is imperative for most global investors and businesses to have an India strategy or at least a view today - Global forums are replete with discussions of the immense opportunities in the country - investments that are also touted as being for greater good as they help raise the living standards of millions of people.
Thus when Montek Singh Ahluwalia and Raghuram Rajan chose instead to speak of the structural challenges facing the Indian economy at Davos, more so at a forum which was intended to discuss India's growth when compared to that of China's, it was a refreshing change in the tone. As an MBA student in London, I had gotten used to all the optimism that more often than not, tends to come from Indians themselves - Indians who pride their ability to 'jugaad' as a one stop approach to all our problems.
Not only was this Martin Wolf-led discussion panel vocal about some of the critical challenges facing the country, it was emphatic that there was not much time to get act our act together. Global investments would not wait while 'democracy' was used as an, again, one-stop excuse to justify the slow pace of important reforms.
The critical discussion continued the next day in the second conference; a Tim Brown-led discussion on design and innovation in India. On the panel, M.P Rajan gave some critical insights into the immense design talent on the ground in India, and lamented that, due to the lack of a coherent innovation ecosystem this talent and design capacity is not channelled optimally into innovation production
The two conferences were organised by the INDIA Future of Change consortium that is spearheading a multi-year campaign to raise awareness of India across the globe, especially in places where it can influence the general thinking of the international community. Interest in both the conferences was immense with Kirchner Museum, the venue, being filled to capacity. And it was not just critical thinking from the panel. The audience was involved too. J.N Godrej, who was in the audience for the innovation conference, was at one point asked to speak about Godrej's new refrigerator being designed for rural India.
On the lines of the upcoming Godrej refrigerator, both panels were emphatic that India's growth would eventually chart its own story much different from other emerging economies. As a nation, we have a unique society that will demand its own systems and products. In fact the panel pointed out that while initial momentum in areas such as design and manufacturing have been through replication of proven western offerings, a new trend of India innovating for its masses and then channelling 'frugal innovation' products to the rest of the world is now underway. And global brand leaders, no less than the likes of GE are already changing their organisations to be a part of this phenomenon.
During the week of the World Economic Forum, Davos is an immense concentration of the people who can influence decision making. It was not uncommon to walk down the main street in the evening and pass by CEO's of multi-billion dollar corporations. On my way to Davos from Zurich airport, I shared a car with a retired professor of urban planning from Beijing University in China. He was seventy years old, and this was the first time he had been invited to the forum. It struck me that while it was a great platform for leaders and academicians to network and share views, you had to bring something to the table yourself to be noticed and heard.
And Indian efforts such as those of the ‘India Future of Change’ and CII realized this. The main street in Davos was filled with advertisements for investing in India – a high profile campaign designed to impress and influence. The impact of course, is hard to measure, but I came away with a quiet sense of satisfaction that we were trying, hard.
****
Nilav Bose is an MBA student of London Business School. An Indian national, he has lived and worked abroad for many years. He is passionate about Indian issues and was a part of the ‘India Future of Change' consortium at Davos. The views expressed here are his own.
Nice article, thanks for the information.
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