'Think boldly, innovate fearlessly, & invest strategically': Shaktikanta Das to India Inc amid global shocks

Indian enterprises must “think boldly, innovate fearlessly, and invest strategically”, as geopolitical shocks reshape the world economy, Principal Secretary-2 to Prime Minister Shaktikanta Das said Monday while promising measures in the coming months to strengthen the economy.

Addressing industry captains at the CII annual business summit, Das said the era of single-source supply chains and short-term optimization was giving way to a new global order where resilience, strategic investment and technological capability would determine economic leadership, while calling for strategic reorientation of businesses.

The government, he said, had taken a host of steps to safeguard the country from the prevailing geopolitical situation, including by focusing on renewable energy, spending on infrastructure and entering into Free Trade Agreements with nations, and there is "no reform complacency".


"There are several other initiatives which are in the pipeline and they will follow in the coming months and years to strengthen long-term resilience of our economy," Das said.

Das said since over-dependence on a narrow set of markets or geographies increases vulnerability during global slowdowns, especially for exporters, Indian businesses should actively explore and engage with new export markets and leverage on India's growing economic and diplomatic footprint.

"Market diversification would spread the risks, stabilise revenue streams and allow firms to tap into new growth corridors and demand patterns," he said.

He said no country or single supply chain remains the cheapest, safest or the most predictable on a sustained basis, Das said due to geopolitical conflicts, fragmentation supply chains which the world believed were the cheapest, the safest and the quickest, were today getting disrupted.

“Operational strategies of industry and businesses need to be reoriented from concentration to diversification and from short-term efficiency to long-term resilience," Das said.

Das said India Inc must focus on seven strategies, build organisational resilience, strengthen balance sheet, build new supply chain, resell manpower, diversify into new markets, invest strategically for future readiness and invest in research and development.

He pointed out that India is taking bold and forward-looking measures to enhance strategic self-reliance in a number of critical sectors from rare earth permanent magnets to critical minerals, shipbuilding, cotton productivity and artificial intelligence.

He said that India has made a sustained push towards reliance on alternative energy and investment in renewable energy has risen sharply which will help mitigate the challenges posed by the war in West Asia.

"India is better positioned today to confront extreme (energy) demand conditions head-on and emerge resilient," he said.

On infrastructure investment, Das said the unprecedented expansion in infrastructure facilities is anchored in rising capital expenditure of the central government, up exponentially in recent years.

"Amid global geopolitical and geoeconomic tensions, India offers a striking counter-narrative. New mega infrastructure projects are being delivered to the nation in quick succession," he said.

Policy consistency combined with timely and calibrated reforms are expected to ensure that India not only maintains macroeconomic stability but also emerges as a globally competitive and inclusive economy, Das added.