WINNING TEAM OF MMA 11TH COMPETITION FOR TOMORROW’S MANAGERS
NTIONAL THERMAL POWER CORPORATION LTD

A synopsis of the paper presented by the winning team Mr Mohit Yadav, Ms Roshani Majarikar and Mr Gopal Shankar Saxena from NTPC Ltd at the 11th MMA Competition for Tomorrow’s Managers on the theme “Global Leadership: India Can Do It!”

“I am convinced that the 21st Century will be an Indian Century. The world will once again look at us with regard and respect, not just for the economic progress we make but for the democratic values we cherish and uphold and the principles of pluralism and inclusiveness we have come to represent which is India’s heritage.”
- Dr Manmohan Singh, January 7, 2005

Indeed, INDIA has arrived. Its time has come. It’s been a fairly long & exhaustive journey of attainment of lost glory but the tougher part is yet to be crossed. Today, with its global ambition, India is poised to carve out a niche for itself in the world power map. Already possessing leadership position in the services sector, India is now striving to replicate the success of IT/BPO industry in the manufacturing & agriculture domains. With a Scientist as President, an Economist as Prime Minister & energized Indians, INDIA CAN DO IT!
The dream of Global Leadership has to be actualized on sustainable growth that inclusive. The growth must bring along fresh avenues of employment coupled with better life style. Actualizing the cherished dream of Global Leadership will call for rapid strides in the field of Industry where a lot is still to be done, Agriculture where second green revolution is desperately needed & Services which now will have to break in the global league of players providing having presence in the complete value chain of products.
Based on our study & observation based on the primary & secondary survey, we have distilled 3-D model for sustainable, inclusive & equitable development of India to enable it to achieve the “Global Leadership” Position.
3-D Model for Global Leadership
• Domains: Services, Manufacturing, Agriculture.
• Drivers: Efficient Institutions, Proactive policies, Macro-economic stability, Infrastructure, Mature markets, Innovation, Education Sector & Health care.
• Destination: Strong & Vibrant India leading to Global Leadership Position.

(1) Domains
The success of any country depends on the basic foundations read “Domains” that support & flourish it economy, extend employment to million of youth & let them have desired lifestyle while at the same time making contribution to the well being of the country. For India
1. The contribution of services domain shot up from 41.1% to 53.64% of economy from 1990-91 to 2005-06.
2. The contribution of manufacturing domain increased from 13.24% to 15.89% of economy from 1990-91 to 2005-06.
3. Share of agricultural domain reduced from 28.52% to 17 %.
Services Domain
Today in this knowledge era, the brainy India equipped with second largest English speaking population, lower wages, age factor (50% of India’s population is under 25) has been on high growth trajectory due to the contribution of:
? IT/ITES: This sector has been the fore runner in making India shining. Indian IT services export (including BPO services) touched 1,04,130 crore from mere 250 crore in 1991( a whopping 41552 % increase) & is slated to become 2,70,000 crore by 2010. India today commands 65% share of global offshore market & 46 % share of BPO industry.
? Telecom: A stealth communication revolution is already underway in India with tariffs being the lowest & 6 million new subscribers every month (world record).The teledensity has increased from abysmal 0.69% in 1991 to 16% now.
? Retail: Organized retail is in process of unfolding. Today it occupies minuscule 3% of the 14, 00,000 crore sector (about 40% of GDP).
? Financial Services: Banking, insurance, mutual funds are paving way for the overall growth of the country. Mutual fund today manage 2,31,862 crore & banking system with assets of 12,11,760 crore & deposits of 9,87,360 crore remains the backbone of the country.
Proposed Recommendations for Services Domain
1. Risk diversification for the IT/ITES sector. (Top 3 players get 70% of revenues from US).
2. Low productivity issue particularly in banking needs to be addressed. (Profit per employee @ 2.5 lakh is one of the lowest when compared to developed countries).
3. Availability of employable graduates to be ensured through Institute-Industry interface & proper policy intervention. (NASSCOM predicts a shortage of 5 lakh professionals by 2010 which could erode India’s cost advantage & another study points out that only 25% graduates of engineering college are employable).
4. Labour Laws to be made Flexible.
5. National Service Sector Council needs to be made on the lines of National Manufacturing Competitiveness Council.
Manufacturing Domain
Manufacturing sells goods to other sectors and in turn buys materials and services from them for its growth and development. India with its experienced work force, large pool of scientists, engineers and managers, reasonable endowment of natural resources and a large domestic market has got the potential to emerge as a major manufacturing hub for the global market. Rising productivity is the key to maintaining and improving competitiveness of manufacturing.
1. Auto Industry: India’s auto components industry has the advantages of low costs, skills in process, product and capital engineering owing to its long manufacturing history and higher education system. The Indian auto industry actually enjoys a 6.1% benefit relative to China in costs due to its engineering capability.
2. Pharma Industry: The rise of the pharmaceutical and biotechnology sectors have been great success stories in the saga of India’s recent economic achievements. China, India’s chief competitor for low-cost manufacturing, is at least 5 – 7 years behind India in the pharmaceutical sector in terms of technology and process innovations.
Apart from Auto, Pharmaceutical industries, Leather and Leather goods, Textiles and Garments, Capital Goods, Electronic hardware (whose size is 2.4 times of oil & gas sector & is larger than metals and auto), Handicrafts, Gems and Jewellery etc. have the potential to take Indian manufacturing saga to next level.
Proposed Recommendations for Manufacturing Domain
1. Macro economic stability including containment of core inflation to be controlled.
2. Cost competitiveness and stimulating domestic demand to be reinforced.
3. Education & skill building to be reinforced.
4. Investment to be made in innovations & technology.
5. Speedy development of infrastructure to be ensured.
6. Small & Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to achieve competitiveness.
Agriculture Domain
Agriculture in India is one of the most prominent sectors in its economy. Agriculture and allied sectors like forestry, logging and fishing accounted for 17% of the GDP and employed 60% of the country’s population. It accounts for 8.56 % of India’s exports. Despite a steady decline of its share in the GDP, agriculture is still the largest economic sector and plays a significant role in the overall socio-economic development of India. The growth rate declined from 3.2 per cent during 1980-97 to a trend average of 2 per cent subsequently.
Proposed Recommendations for Agriculture Domain
1. Better knowledge dissemination through use of Information & Communication Technology. The case in point is ITC’s
e-choupal which connects across 2 million rural people.
2. Adoption of better agriculture practices & technologies.
3. Irrigation facilities to be made available through innovative solutions such as rain water harvesting, ambitious river interlinking projects etc.
4. Speedy development of farm infrastructure including cold storage chains, better logistics etc to be ensured.
5. Encouragement to be given for Dry land farming through some incentive coupled with sharing of best practices across world for dry land farming.
(2) Drivers
1. Efficient Institutions
Public institution will have to become efficient. Judicial & Police reforms must be expedited to bring them at par with world’s best.
Private players should take competitiveness to the next level through benchmarking, quality improvement etc. Private players should be proactive in discharging social obligations. Level of ethics & accountability should be raised further.
2. Proactive Policies
The policies made by the government should be competitive & should give level playing field to all players while protecting the interest of the nation as competition brings forward the best face of innovation.
Some of the immediate fields of attention are:
? Policies conducive to FDI in country.
? FDI in retail
3. Infrastructure
Sound infrastructure is very important for driving economic expansion. India’s contribution towards infrastructure is only 4.1% of its GDP which is very low when compared to some of the other rapidly developing economies like China where it is 8.2%. Thus we need to explore more public-private partnerships and FDI rules need to be modified as we require $ 325 billion investment in this area alone over the next five years.
4. Macro-economic Stability
It is very essential for achieving the desired rate of growth. Large fluctuations in factors like output, employment and inflation need to be avoided. Thus we need to plan more effectively as to how to improve the quality as well as quantity of investment in both human and physical capital.
5. Mature Market
It is the quintessence for growth sustenance. There are several dimensions of the mature markets like financial market, labour market & general market conditions. In the financial market space availability of loans at competitive rates, availability of venture capital & entry policy of equity market are some of the factors for growth. In the labour market space labour laws prevalent in the country, sophistication of the labour pool, wage rates & competitiveness are to be ensured. In the general market conditions, the characteristics of the markets have to be strong to have a pivotal role in growth like procedures to start business, taxation, Intellectual property protection laws.
6. Health Care
Healthy workforces are the roots of a country. But India contributes less than 1% of its GDP towards health which is to be improved. Thus we need to better health infrastructure keeping in mind rural health as our top priority because only by taking Bharat along with India can we move towards the path of global leadership.
7. Education Sector
Education sector holds the key for unlocking the dream to be global leader. But statistics don’t present the rosy picture, where only 60% of Indians are literate compared to 90% of people in China. Education is central to the economic progression of the country. Education ecosystem to be created with all stakeholders involved to prepare Indian graduates for taking global roles. Institution of excellence should be given financial, academic & administrative autonomy.
8. Innovation
Innovation drives growth. Innovation is central to a national advancement towards the global leadership. Innovation could be from any walk of life, it may be a product innovation or process innovation. Structural changes to be made towards attracting bright students in the field of research & companies should invest/ increase investment in research.
(3) Destination
The ultimate destination of India is to be a global leader. But this should not come at the price of social divide. The targeted growth should be inclusive, plural & equitable. The immediate growth targets are:
? The sustainable GDP growth of 8-9% to be maintained with attempts to take it to double digits while making sure it promotes horizontal development coupled with vertical one.
? National competitiveness should be under top 10 within a decade.
? HDI index rank (current 126) & corruption index rank (current 70) to be improved to fewer than 10.
? % of people under BPL (Below poverty Line) to be brought to zero within a decade.
The proposed 3-D model will take INDIA to the path of Global Leadership.
Conclusion
India is finally rising in world horizon. The ever cherished dream of Global Leadership was never as visible as it is today before we Indians. Indeed India has the potential to take on this challenge with the spirit of challenger & ultimately emerge as the leader. But the challenges are also in plenty ranging from poor infrastructure & healthcare to inefficient institutions such as bureaucracy. The rural India has to be included in the journey in order to make growth inclusive & equitable.
The pillars of the economic progress are well developed services, manufacturing & agriculture domains. Services are already shining the face of India; it is now turn of manufacturing & agriculture to take the economy forward. Manufacturing is staging a splendid comeback but agriculture needs fresh impetus as its growth is hovering at less than 2% which needs to be taken to 4% to realize the dream.
The dream can well be achieved with domains supported by drivers to reach to the final destination “Global Leadership” with equitable, plural & INCLUSIVE growth. INDIA Can & Will Do It.
At the last but not the least in the words of Rabindra Nath Tagore.

“Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high.
Where knowledge is free.
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls.
Where words come out from the depth of truth.
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection.
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.”