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World should invest in India: Purnendu Chatterjee

Sunday, 21 March 2010, 20:04 Hrs | 2 Comments

World should invest in India: Purnendu Chatterjee

New Delhi: Global investor Purnendu Chatterjee has identified life science as an area where he foresees great potential for investment in India, but with a totally different model on new drug discovery from what has been adopted by the developed world.

"India and China have 2.5 billion people. If we figure out how to design drugs that are not using the model of the U.S. drug discovery system, then we can even solve the world's problems," said the founder of The Chatterjee Group, based in Mumbai and New York.

"We should create a model that leverages the base of India and China and creates a very low-cost drug," Chatterjee, an associate of legendary investor George Soros, told IANS in an interview.

"We are investing in life sciences. But what we are not doing is investing in retail. I don't want to invest in every place -- just knowledge-based industries -- anywhere that we think new knowledge can be created for global use."

He declined to share numbers.

But his group already has a company in the area called TCG Lifesciences, with its base in India, Europe, Japan and the U.S., which also has a tie-up with pharmaceutical major Pfizer to develop a portfolio of drug molecules.

According to Chatterjee, an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology at Kharagpur in West Bengal, India was the place to be for global investors, as it offered several avenues of investment where they can perform faster, better and cheaper.

"I have seen many Indian companies, where return of equity is in excess of 20 percent, he said, adding: "India is the place where the world has to invest -- to protect not just ageing population but also their trillions of dollars of wealth," he said.

"About five percent of global wealth should be invested in India. If it is not there, one is missing out on a huge big opportunity for protecting and growing your retirement fund."

Citing himself as an example, a first-generation entrepreneur, Chatterjee said potential Indian enterprises also needed seed capital for small and mid-sized operations as capital from overseas would only come for large projects.

"There is plenty of domestic money. Unfortunately financial institutions in this country are debt-oriented. What entrepreneurs need is equity, as traditionally, angel funding is available -- like Marwaris and Gujaratis funding relatives or friend," he said.

"But what is not there is outside those business communities. If I am a Bengali, I have nowhere to go. Because my father was a lawyer, he did not have enough savings to give me money to be an entrepreneur."

According to Chatterjee, who is also a major investor in Haldia Petrochemicals in West Bengal, it mattered neither to him nor the poor person at what rate India was growing, but in his opinion the country was expanding at a rate faster than China's.

"I think India is de facto already the fastest-growing economy. We do not count the black economy -- at what rate that is growing. And we don't know at what rate China is actually growing," he said.

"As long as India is growing at 8-10 percent, this is good. We are not in a league table. Nobody is going to give us an award for growing 9.5 percent as opposed to 9.3 percent."
Source: IANS

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Reader's comments(2)

1: Today's mantra deployed by most of us for any kind of cure is -

1. Medical Science for Diagnosis & Instant Relief
2. Ayurveda, Yoga, Naturopathy, Etc. for Permanent Cure

Which definitely and fortunately, is signalling towards a big change! People are realizing the importance of such age-old & full-proof knowledge imparted by GOD himself. It is high time that we all start working in that direction. Else, the rest of the world will steal away our treasure and sell to us for a fortune. Just like it happened with Yoga. (When people did not even knew of Ramdev Baba.) People believed only when the books came from the U. S. and practised after reading them.

Just imagine the real "gyan" of our "vaid-raj" who could determine the ailment just by checking the pulse! On the contrary, today's so called medical science cannot sometimes detect what is wrong with the body, after so many tests & reports! Nor does is has a cure for common-cold!

I think we all already know this. So not elaborating any further. My humble request to all Businessmen & Industrialists is that - Please promote good things of our origin. (I'm really short of the adjectives to use for the "good things") For instance, take agriculture, herbal farming, handicrafts, and so on. The list is endless. And the system was self-sufficient, healthy, ecologically balanced, environment-friendly (GREEN) and most importantly HAPPY.

All the loads of wealth, worldly treasures & the GDP rate does not make any sense to the stupid common man if he is not happy! if he has to struggle his entire life for a happy living - first for his parents, then for himself and later for his children.

Let us leave behind, a beautiful country for our future generations, so that their world is full of health, happiness, peace & prosperity in real sense. Let us create a model for the entire world, which will lead to global peace & harmony!

Posted by:Rahul - 22 Mar, 2010