RBI Deputy Governor – “India needs new catalysts to relaunch growth”

ConneXion 2013, the annual knowledge summit organized by the students of the Post Graduate Programme in Management for Executives (PGPX) at IIM Ahmedabad has come to a close. The 4th edition of the summit with the theme ‘India INCubate: Ideas to Actions’ saw interaction between industry and academia who debated and discussed ways to kick start India’s growth story. The event was held from 24-26 October 2013 and saw a host of CEOs, thought leaders, and government officials attending the prestigious event.  Dr. K. C. Chakrabarty, Deputy Governor of RBI, inaugurated the summit with a keynote address. Amit Agarwal, Country Head, Amazon India was the keynote speaker on the second day.

Dr. K.C. Chakrabarty spoke about the need new catalysts for re-launching India’s economic growth, and more importantly, the need to bridge the “courage gap” stalling today’s leaders from taking action. He emphasized that the nation’s growth must be driven by efficiency and productivity. Dr. Chakrabarty pointed out some of the roadblocks to growth – the low knowledge base in India, low investment in R&D, lack of professional management in the SME sector and the less than stellar financial inclusion of the underprivileged in the country. He provided some must do’s to address these problems: to think positive and fight to stay ahead despite the odds and to make development sustainable by plugging leakages and wastage in systems.

“Be willing to fail” in order to progress articulated Mr. Amit Agarwal, VP and Country Manager of Amazon India, in his keynote address.Talking about Amazon’s failed experiments such as Search Engine and Auction, he emphasized the need for maximizing experimentation and being stubborn on vision, but flexible on details. Emphasizing on the importance of thinking long term, he signed off by saying “It is easier to invent the future than to predict it.”

The panel discussing the topic ‘Bridging the Divide: Subsidy to Sustainability’ weighed in with their perspective on the challenges facing the nation. The panel led by PGPX participants Aditya Paranjpe and Rajneesh Kumar, comprised of luminaries from diverse fields – Mr. Shyam Srinivasan, CEO, Federal Bank, Mr. Suresh Prabhu, Member of Parliament, Mr. Sebastian Morris, Professor in Economics, IIM Ahmedabad and Dr. Nilanjan Ghosh, Chief Economist, MCX Exchange. Prof Errol D’Souza from IIM Ahmedabad moderated the debate. The discussion began with a peek into the various reasons for the inefficacy of subsidies and went on to evaluate a set of possible solutions. The panel suggested that subsidy should be used as an instrument for long term development of the economy and the transmission losses should be reduced through administrative reforms.

India needs to become a brand from being a market and source of low cost labour and for this, India needs to invest in R&D, change its mind-set and focus on execution till the last mile, concluded the panel debating over the topic ‘Redefining Made in India: Low cost to High value’. The panel comprised of Mr. Anil Chaudhary, MD – Schneider Electric, Mr. Sanjay Purohit, Global Head of Platforms – Infosys, Mr. Rashmin Shah, CEO – Zydus, Ms. Gagan Singh, CEO – Jones Lang LaSalle, Mr. Parag Desai, Executive Director – Wagh Bakri Tea and Mr. Sauri Gudlavallti, Engagement Manager – McKinsey. The panel was moderated by Prof. G. Raghuram, Dean (Faculty) at IIM-A.  Responding to the question about how India could transition from being low cost to high value provider, panelists stressed the need for Indian companies to invest in R&D and use their vast experience in the complex Indian market to tap into high value opportunities in overseas markets.

“Leaders are a combination of Ganesha, Hanuman, Rama and Krishna, signifying wisdom, courage, values and affection respectively”, said Mr. Rajesh Sud, CEO Max Life Insurance, one of the panelists on ‘Building India’s Leadership Pipeline’. Other panelists included Mr. Anish Philip GM People Services, MindTree; Mr. Gagandeep Singh, Principal Consultant, Flame Tao and Major (Dr.) Surendra Poonia, Sportsperson. The panelists concluded that individuals need to be passionate about developing themselves as cross-functional experts and building their careers as leaders. At the same time, organizations must create an environment fostering experimentation and remove the fear of failure. IIMA faculty professors T V Rao and Neharika Vohra stressed that future leaders should expand their vision beyond self and organization to society and nation.

The event was graced by a number of leading lights. His Excellency Dr. A. K. Jagessur, High Commissioner, Mauritius presided over the evening dinner. Professor Sinha, who mentored PGPX for this event and Prof. Raghuram closed the event by saying that the event had scaled new heights and marked a milestone in the growth of the PGPX program.