iNDICA NEWS BUREAU-
The CEO of an American multinational professional services company has said that India has all the opportunities and capabilities to bounce out of the Covid-hit economic crisis and reach newer heights.
Punit Renjen, CEO of Deloitte said that the Indian government has performed well in addressing the challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic and said India will come out in flying colors.
“This is India’s century and I’m convinced about it,” the 60-year-old prominent Indian-American businessman.
“I am certainly a little biased given my (Indian) heritage but I’m actually convinced that this is India’s century because of just the raw talent that exists in India, the number of people that comprise India, the democratic tradition that has been around for 75 years,” he said.
Observing that the pandemic impacted everyone, Renjen said the pandemic impacted India very hard, given the lockdown that the government had to put in place, given the size of the population and what the virus potentially could do to India.
His assertion comes after the recent report from the IMF which projected 12.5 percent growth rate for the country.
“Nobody can say with precision, but I really believe that India is going to come out of this pandemic growing at the fastest rate;… definitely the fastest large economy,” he said.
“Given all of those conditions, I believe that the Indian economy, the Indian people have weathered this as well as they possibly could,” he said, adding that, however, there have been difficult times but that is not just unique to India.
When asked about the foreign direct investment in India, he said the foreign investors look at a number of parameters.
“First that look at stable governance. India certainly has that. They look at democratic traditions in the rule of law. India has that. They look at a large consumer base. 1.3 billion people aspiring to come out and be in the middle class or above, India has that in droves. Then it looks at the core comparative advantage. India’s comparative advantage of highly talented individuals is second to none,” he said.
“I’ve committed that over the next few years, we will hire 75,000 additional individuals. And the reason why Deloitte as an entity is looking at India, is because the talent that exists in India. With all of that, I believe that all the makings are there for this to be India century,” he said.
Renjen said India needs to ensure that the means of doing business in the country are open, that there is an attraction for foreign investment coming to India to invest in sectors that are important not only for India but also for India being the base to serve the rest of the world.
India dominates in terms of vaccine production and there is no reason why the country cannot be the pharmaceutical engine for the rest of the world. India dominates in technology some iconic Indian companies that really operate globally. There’s no reason why that can’t be expanded, he said.
“And why some of the new things that have come out of the pandemic, the silver linings that have come out of the pandemic – digitization, cloud, the technology-enabled secular growth – why India can’t drive those areas? I think this is a great opportunity,” he said.