We're going to double our bets on America: Anand Mahindra

MUMBAI: Even as the world adjusts to the reality of the United States President Donald Trump, Anand Mahindra, the executive chairman of the Mahindra Group, on Friday added to the narrative that Trump's “Make America Great Again“ policy is an opportunity for India and that his group is going to double investments in the United States of America.

Two days after Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani said, at the same event, that Trump was a “blessing in disguise“ for India, Mahindra also said that India needs to look at the protectionist attitude of the US as an opportunity.

“The reality is, however, his (Trump's) Make America Great Again policy is going to make America a wonderful place to invest in. The markets are already cheering, we are going to double our bets on America, because I think it's going to be very robust,“ he said.


He also took a dig at Trump: “I think all of us wake up every morning and look to see what Mr Trump has tweeted.As usual, he's getting the highest rating for this reality show, no one's going to dispute that with him,“ Mahindra said at a panel discussion at the ongoing Nasscom India Leadership Forum (NILF).Further, he urged the Indian information technology in dustry, represented by host Nasscom, to reimagine itself at a time when it is facing challenges in its biggest markets as well as the changing nature of business brought about by automation.

Addressing a packed hall, Mahindra was at his candid best as he steered the session, co-chaired by HDFC Bank's managing director Aditya Puri and NDTV consulting editor Vikram Chandra.

Mahindra said Nasscom's move to not announce its annual growth target for the IT services industry -a first in 25 years -was a step in the right direction.

“I think deferring the growth forecast is a brilliant move, because if you had simply done your excel sheet work, and said we're going to get 8% or we're revising downward our projection, that's reengineering -that's plumbing... The first step in reimagining is to recognise that things have changed,“ he said.

Tech Mahindra is the IT Services arm of the Mahindra Group, which earlier this month suspended the appraisal cycle for its employees with more than six years of experience pending a management review.

Mahindra said there was a need to bust the fallacy that Indian software engineers were “brown skinned bots...who do not add any value“.He spoke about an “India app on tap“ and the need to leverage new technology such as cloud, and make India the preferred country of choice for its development.