India Unleashed 2007

Notes from the The South Asian Business Association (SABA) conference at Columbia University:

India shining:

  • 50% of India’s population is under 30 years old
  • India #1 in milk production and #2 in fruit & veg production
  • Hindalco - World’s #1 Aluminium producer
  • Mittal - World’s #1 Steel producer
  • Reliance invests 22M in Chevron, Dow Chemicals and few other US based companies

Challenges facing India:

  • Bringing 600M non-urban population into the mainstream
  • Building infrastructure - 350B dollars invested
  • Power Crisis - the culture of “free power” has to go
  • Water shortage
  • 50% illiteracy in Bihar & UP
  • 5.7M HIV infected (projected: 50M deaths/year by 2050)
  • Education & Health - address social infrastructure problems
  • Agricultural productivity and inefficient supply chain - new retail chains like Reliance Fresh & Bharati-Walmart should help eliminate inefficiencies in raw produce procurement from farmers
  • Nuclear threat and inflammation a huge threat (India’s nuclear weapons capability annual expenses = 0.5% of GDP - Amartya Sen in The Argumentative Indian)

Arun Shourie, former Disinvestment Minister and former editor of Indian Express, emphasized that every Indian is a reflection of India; non-Indians look at us and develop an impression of India and Indians. On a lighter note (joked Shashi Tharoor), don’t be alarmed if an American walks up to you with a broken laptop at the airport.

  • Economy steadily growing 9% YOY
  • Exports growing 23% every year
  • Forex Reserves touch 200B
  • Remittances into India 24M/year
  • 6M new mobile subscribers/month

    • But then…

  • 98% of parliamentarians voted on minority vote
  • 60% voted into parliament by less than 40% voter turnout

Shourie’s Quote of the Day: While India is not the land of snake charmers anymore, we also can charm snakes.

Shashi Tharoor stressed upon the significance of nation’s “soft power” - the ability to influence or persuade other nations without military power. Soft power could be derived from spreading culture and awareness (Bollywood and tourism), political values (biggest democracy and secular governing body) and foreign policy (credibility).

Move over “melting pots” and “salad bowl”, the thali is here.  Tharoor used the thali as an analogy for Indian diversity - assorted platter, yet each its own.

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