India Economic Summit
New Delhi, 2-4 December 2007

India: Building Centres of Excellence

Tuesday 4 December

India will need to focus on priorities that give greatest impact

Business, political and civil society leaders at the Forum’s India Economic Summit have called on India to focus on skills development, improving governance, the upgrading of education, forging public-private partnerships in infrastructure, and addressing environmental degradation and water scarcity to sustain the high growth the country requires. Emphasizing the bright future promised by India’s demographics, Ambika Soni, Minister of Tourism and Culture of India, said, “Young people in India want to learn and become skilled.”
Press release

Schwab Foundation names Indian Social Entrepreneur of the Year 2007

Harish Hande, Managing Director, SELCO Solar Light, India, has been named the Social Entrepreneur of the Year 2007 for India. The award was presented by Ambika Soni, Minister of Tourism and Culture during the India Economic Summit. At the award ceremony Hande said, “It is wonderful that SELCO’s efforts to link poverty alleviation and the climate have been recognized.  We, at SELCO, sincerely hope the award can bring to attention that environment-friendly technologies like solar can provide solutions to the underserved populations.”
Press release

Can India produce the next Google?

At a plenary session on tech sector growth during the India Economic Summit, Edward J. Zander, Chairman and CEO of Motorola, said India has already proved itself as a leader in the IT support and services sectors. He stated it has "all the ingredients" for continued success: good levels of education, well-established centres of excellence, and a good relationship between the private and public sectors. Session participants agreed that India would continue to thrive in the IT sector, but concerns raised included slow growth in hardware production, rising wages and the lack of adequate infrastructure.
Press release


Infrastructure key to attaining 9% Indian growth

"The target we have set for the economy which is to accelerate to an average of 9% growth cannot be achieved if we fail to make an effort in infrastructure," Montek Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairman of India’s Planning Commission said. On the third day of the India Economic Summit, he told participants that the government did view the infrastructure deficit as a constraint to growth, adding that it aims to increase its current investment from 5% of GDP to 9% by 2011, 30% of which it hopes will come from the private sector.
Photos | Session summary



Monday 3 December

Can Mumbai become an international financial centre?

Finance experts agreed that Mumbai has the potential to become an international financial centre, but is hampered by a number of factors, particularly poor infrastructure and the need for greater legal and tax transparency. "We can aspire to it," said Tarun Jotwani, Chairman and CEO of Lehman Brothers in India. "But we have a lot of work to do before we get there. We have to start now." Concluded Jotwani: "Given the importance of India, there is no doubt that Mumbai will become an international financial centre."
Photos

Urbanizing rural India
Leaders at the India Economic Summit discussed one of India’s biggest challenges – the massive migration from rural communities to increasingly overburdened cities. “As long as all opportunities are concentrated in metropolises, you will not be able to stem this tide,” said Mani Shankar Aiyar, Minister of Panchayati Raj and Youth Affairs and Sports of India. In order to spread opportunities, Anand Mahindra, head of Mahindra & Mahindra, suggested increasing the number of special economic zones as an “accidental” way of spreading urbanization – and opportunities – to rural India.
Webcast I Press release I Photos

Infrastructure greatest obstacle to building centres of excellence
"The greatest challenge facing India is to build an effective, efficient, scalable and sustainable infrastructure for this fast emerging economy," said AMD’s Hector Ruiz. In order to expand its centres of excellence beyond IT and services, Daniel Brutto, President, UPS International, said there needs to be a greater ability to move goods freely within India. "At the end of the day it’s easier to build a road than it is to build a democracy," observed Nandan Nilekani, Executive Co-Chairman, Infosys Technologies.
Webcast I Photos




Sunday 2 December

Indian Finance Minister: Asia rising but power shift premature

With India and China now contributing 60% or more to global GDP growth, it is clear that the drivers have shifted from the developed world to developing economies, said Palaniappan Chidambaram, Minister of Finance of India. However, he went on to say that this does not mean that economic power has shifted: “As long as developed economies have an edge over developing countries in knowledge, financial and material resources, I do not think we should rush to the conclusion that power has shifted.”
Photos I Session summary I Press release

“There is a fundamental shift from geopolitics to geo-economics. Economics are at the centre of concern for everybody,” said Mukesh Ambani, head of Reliance Industries, in an India Economic Summit plenary session. The credit crunch triggered by the sub-prime mortgage crisis could drag the US into a recession in 2008, Morgan Stanley’s Stephen Roach predicted. He said the global economic climate would be much tougher, including for Asia, noting that “I don’t buy the argument that the Asian economies have decoupled from the US.”
India Economic Summit I Photos

Co-Chairs
Mukesh D. Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director, Reliance Industries, India
Orit Gadiesh, Chairman, Bain & Company, USA
Anand G. Mahindra, Vice-Chairman and Managing Director, Mahindra & Mahindra, India
Hector de J. Ruiz, Chairman of the Board, President and Chief Executive Officer, AMD, USA
Ben J. Verwaayen, Chief Executive Officer, BT, United Kingdom
Edward J. Zander, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Motorola, USA

Quotes

"There are great opportunities in India but don’t take anything for granted. Keep investing in education and address infrastructure."
Edward J. Zander, Chairman and CEO, Motorola; Co-Chair, India Economic Summit

"Healthcare, like education, is a very important part of our soft infrastructure. We need to build scale in all healthcare initiatives we are talking about."
Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Chairperson and Managing Director, Biocon India
India Economic Summit

Malvinder M. Singh, CEO and Managing Director, Ranbaxy Laboratories, India; Young Global Leader

"The amount of M&As in terms of number and value is significantly increasing year on year."
India Economic Summit





Rajendra S. Pawar, Chairman, NIIT Group, India

"Success in M&A is the ability to retain key talent in the acquisition and to leverage intellectual capital in new markets and adjacent markets."
India Economic Summit




“India’s infrastructure deficit needs to be addressed if it is to achieve 9% growth.”
Rajat Nag, Managing Director-General, Asian Development Bank





“Fewer people are talking about finance and resources as constraint to the development of infrastructure."
Rajiv Lall, Managing Director and CEO, Infrastructure Development Finance Company, India

 "Along with national security, the three pillars of security – human, economic and physical – need to be raised to bring the Indian economy to a position where the challenges can be met."
Shamsher S. Mehta, Director-General, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII)
Session summary



 

"There are more mobile phone than bank account owners in India – and if you look at that opportunity, we have the technology, and so we must serve this group which is waiting."
Janmejaya K. Sinha, Managing Director, The Boston Consulting Group, India

"We have a huge market at home, growing exceptionally strongly and if you really want to take advantage of this, it is better that consolidation rather than fragmentation takes place."
Vijay Mallya, Group Chairman, UB Group, India

“Given the interdependence of the world, international institutions do not work. We need to look at different institutional structures that allow businesses and NGOs a voice at the table of international organizations.”
Madeleine Albright, President, The Albright Group

“You need to take the untapped [human] resources and bring them to fruition otherwise India will have a different value proposition.”
Ben J. Verwaayen, CEO, BT; Co-Chair







"When you talk about skilled labour, there is a massive shortage in India and the core is to ensure you have a solid education system, otherwise you are going to have problems employing them."
Chaly C. K. Mah, CEO, Asia Pacific Deloitte, Singapore

"How can you have a development trade round and do not ensure that we are dealing with the structural flaws but in fact perpetuate them? That is what is standing in the way."
Kamal Nath, Minister of Commerce and Industry of India







"India has always been outside the epicenter of events and yet we get drawn in by the sheer gravitational pull of our geography, resources and potential.”
Anand Mahindra, Vice-Chairman and Managing Director, Mahindra & Mahindra, India; Co-Chair, India Economic Summit 

“Within India the challenge is how to create 100 million new jobs in next 15 years.”
Mukesh Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director, Reliance Industries, India

"The chances of an economic slowdown in the US are pretty strong but I do not think we are going to go into recession.”
Robert Bennett, Senator from Utah (Republican), USA

"Even though India’s economic data is good, there are huge imbalances that need to be addressed.”
Gerard Lyons, Chief Economist and Group Head, Global Research, Standard Chartered

 



"The real economy, including manufacturing, is what is important and the appreciation of the rupee is making that economy suffer.”
Rahul Bajaj, Chairman, Bajaj Auto; Member of Parliament

As long as advanced and developed economies have an edge over developing countries in knowledge, financial and material resources, I do not think we should rush to the conclusion that power has shifted.”
Palaniappan Chidambaram, Minister of Finance of India

"A key to future growth [in India] is the enormous domestic market and the consumption-led economy, which has powered India’s growth and provided a degree of resilience and protection from global ebbs and flows.”
Orit Gadiesh, Chairman, Bain & Company, USA; Co-Chair