India's place in changing world order

MUMBAI, INDIA: India is bound to arise riding on the growth wave, but in order to achieve and maintain that status, the country needs to look at macro-economic aspects, work on the policies, keep an eye on peer markets.

The first session at Nasscom Leadership Forum, on the Changing World Order and India’s Place in it, had Raghuram G Rajan; Eric J. Gleacher distinguished service professor of finance, University of Chicago; K V Kamath, non-executive chairman, ICICI Bank; Swaminathan Aiyar, Consulting Editor, The Economic Times, speaking at the panel that was chaired by Kris Gopalakrishnan, co-founder and CEO of Infosys Technologies.

Sharing his thoughts on the trends, Rajan said, “From the macro-economic front, companies should look at adjusting their process, stop looking at the developed economies, focus on domestic growth and work on their macro policies.”

He observed, “There is a lot of movements in politics (especially the US) that are getting uglier, which I would call as 'Sarahpalinization'. People do not trust elite class and look for localization.”

Aiyar, shared a similar view that peer geographies should be watched out for. He said, “Asia is on a rise, but this growth and boom in demand is also taking Africa and Latin America up... Countries are increasing their focus on the US and Europe, but the companies should not neglect Africa and Latin America.”

He added that IBM would soon have the largest employee base in India, with the largest number of patents coming from this the local center. “But the question then would be about the ownership of the patent, IBM India or IBM USA.”

He shared that India may see higher inflation, decreasing public debt, and should now move up the value chain by outsourcing the basic jobs to neighboring countries like Nepal and Bangladesh.

Kamath said that some time back the growth through services were said to be hollow, but it soon took up and the result was the emergence of countries like India.

He said, “The country needs a structural change like manufacturing did to China, South-East Asia and Japan.”