ET Awards: India Inc discusses strategy as FM Sitharaman signals readiness for reforms amid rising global uncertainty

Let’s have an open, big conversation. This country needs an open, free conversation. Let all domain experts look at what’s happening... Anything that has to be done for the ease of doing business, we are certainly willing to hear.”

The words cut across the hall on a sultry April evening in Mumbai among the finest of India Inc, who get tossed between quiet optimism and lurking anxieties.

At the 26 th edition of The Economic Times Awards for Corporate Excellence, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman set the stage for an exchange of thoughts to navigate a world clobbered by mercurial heads of state.


What if the war in West Asia rages beyond 30 days? What if oil boils over $100? Will the crisis push India, as it had in the past, to gamble on growth? As the evening rolled on, the venue transformed into a melting pot of ideas, ranging from shortto medium-term measures like wooing the diaspora, curbing currency speculation or hiking interest rates, to chasing long-term stories of harnessing artificial intelligence (AI), laying open the purse for research, and even population management.

Transgressing the optics of politics and motherhood statements of business, there was an unmistakable conviction that India is better placed to steer through the crisis, and the unsettling developments — be it supply disruptions or dollar outflows — would open windows of opportunity.

While India’s robust forex reserves, high growth and inflation control give it a stronger footing in tackling volatility, there has been outflow of foreign portfolio investments, a phenomenon that could be influenced by “other considerations,” the finance minister said, and not necessarily governed by commercial and money market principles.
“If there’s something which is worrying the industry, we’d love to hear it, because in response to what we had heard in 2019, we cut the corporate tax rates,” the minister assured the audience.

Amid the imponderables and, sometimes, explicable, forces playing out, Atmanirbhar Bharat, the watchword that captured the imagination during the Covid-19 pandemic, is making a comeback, albeit under different circumstances.
“We have to use our energy sources. We have to popularise induction cooking,” said Sajjan Jindal, chairman of JSW Group, who received the ET Award for Businessman of the Year.

“Rather than the Prime Minister standing and giving LPG cylinders, and counting how much percent of Indian population has got LPG cylinders, we have to see how many people have got induction heating in their kitchen,” said Jindal.

Notwithstanding hardships inflicted by the war or the unnerving forces of AI, there’s a realisation that building blocks for the future must be laid now.

Citing China, Jindal said large state investments to back R&D programmes are a prerequisite, as corporates would only make limited efforts. Harping on the government’s theme of manufacturing, the finance minister once again reminded Corporate India about the significance of domestic demand and the urgency to make goods that India no longer needs to import.

Participating in a CEO panel discussion, Arundhati Bhattacharya, president of Salesforce South Asia, said the country should take advantage of the vast pool of easyto-train young professionals to upskill them as AI creates newer varieties of jobs.

Rarely in recent history has India had to battle multiple headwinds as it does today — turbulent geopolitics, choked trade routes, hardening crude, a looming threat from AI, lurking fears of cyberattacks and a rapidly ageing population — a congeries of factors that has raised concern that India may grow old before it becomes rich.

In countering the challenge of demographics and creating a reservoir of young people by 2047, Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu, who received the ET Award for Business Reformer of the Year, advocated promoting a new “population management policy” to encourage families to have more children.

According to veteran realtor and chairman emeritus of DLF Kushal Pal Singh, who received the award for Lifetime Achievement, India needs a Chicago-sized city every year to raise its per capita income.

Romal Shetty, chief executive of Deloitte South Asia, sponsor of the event, had a word of advice for the corporate captains: Build capabilities now that their current business models do not require, and move — not when the market forces you to, but before it does.