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‘India must build scale across sectors’.

Published: March 11, 2020
Author: TEXTILE VALUE CHAIN

BCG Asia-Pacific chairman Neeraj Aggarwal said India needs to leverage its scale to replicate the fintech experience in other sectors.

India needs to focus on building scale, harnessing data and skilling, while focusing on low-cost solutions to tap the opportunities that global disruptions are throwing up, chief executives of leading businesses said at The Economic Times Global Business Summit on Friday.

BCG Asia-Pacific chairman Neeraj Aggarwal said India needs to leverage its scale to replicate the fintech experience in other sectors. At the same time, he said the nature of jobs is also changing. “There will not be a shortage of jobs but the mix of jobs will change. Doing the same job for the entire life will no longer exist,” said Aggarwal.
During a CEO’s panel discussion on ‘Entering the Decade of Disruption’, several speakers said disruptions offered opportunities to companies, especially the stronger ones.

“Disruption is the evolution you are not prepared for… When you are prepared, it’s not disruption, it’s called innovation,” said Apollo Hospitals MD Sangita Reddy.

Similarly, Sunil Kant Munjal, chairman of Hero Enterprises said companies should focus on building low-cost solutions for healthcare, education, transport, logistics and other segments of the economy as there were 600 million people at the bottom of the pyramid who have low consumption and can be tapped. At the same time, India’s demographic dividend is also a double-edged sword, according to him. “We talk about India being the youngest country, we forget it will also be the oldest in 10 years. We are completely unprepared for it. Preparing for it is not just social work but also a business opportunity,” he said.

Ronnie Screwvala, co-founder and chairman — up-Grad and the founder of UTV, said that India could become a factory to the world but it needs to have the creativity and a sense of innovation as it has a large domestic market in addition to tapping global opportunities.

Binod Chaudhary, who controls CG Corp Global and is Nepal’s sole billionaire, described disruption as a way of life. “If you are an open company and agile, it’s a huge opportunity. The danger is if you don’t wake up on time (you could be) like Nokia, Blackberry or Kodak.” Asked about preparedness to deal with disruptions due to political disruption, trade wars, and health emergencies, Screwvala said, these are exigencies that everyone has to deal with.

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