Vision

My vision for India, in 2050, is that she is in the top 3 in economies as measured by its GDP. Her economic growth is inclusive, lifts the entire population economically and its GDP per capita is within top 10 percent of the world. It is my vision that India would be within top 10 percent in (a) human development index (b) transparency and corruption free index (c) happiness index, and (d) political leadership and effective governance. She is a leader in the world in developing economic models and services for the developing world and does so by utilizing latest and innovative technologies. I envision India to be amongst the top three in creation of new technologies as measured by patents and in scientific accomplishments as measured by published scientific papers in international journals. My vision for India is that she leverages her unique 5,000 plus year old culture and values to influence the world through her soft-power and not through military might. My vision for India is that the upward mobility in economic terms and recognition is through performance and results, and not through other metrics which suit special interest groups.

Opportunity

Indian high-tech companies should create their own top position in the world by identifying unique needs of the developing world and fulfilling those by leveraging technologies. They should not try to blindly copy western companies as their needs are different. The high-tech industry is going through disruptive changes because of transition to cloud-delivered services. It is a lot easier and cheaper to start companies and deliver new services. India should identify what services need to be developed and delivered to meet the needs of her underdeveloped population to improve health care, education, and new economic models to benefit backward sections of the society. Other fields where India can take leadership are healthcare and energy.

Boosting Entrepreneurship

Indians inherently are entrepreneurs. A vendor selling food on a street corner is an entrepreneur. He is a product manager who defines what customers want, he is a sales person as he finds the right opportunity to sell his products and adjusts prices based on a competition. This spirit should be extended to high-tech products and services also. A culture of tolerance for failures with best efforts behind should be nurtured. Large Indian high-tech industries should give opportunities to entrepreneurs to try their products and technologies. Educational institutions should set up entrepreneurship centers and encourage environments to teach them skills such as marketing, sales, business planning, and fund raising. Availability of funds is a pre-requisite and rewards should be high for taking higher risks. An environment of free competition should be encouraged to get the best products and services succeed in the marketplace. R&D Centers

Indian universities should encourage research. Peer reviews should be made as part of the research culture. Researchers should be encouraged to compete at a global level and their rewards should be based on their measurable results such as number of patents and number of papers published and referenced in international journals. The entrepreneurial incubation centers should be connected to these research centers so they can undertake appropriate research and turn them into products to meet customer needs.

Challenges

For an organization to become effective, its leadership plays the most important role. Results have proven that an organization can improve its results multi-fold just by changing the leadership. India’s governance structure is its weakest link. Its leadership is based more on loyalty and conformance to ideological or caste groups rather than on competence and results. Latest scandals related to corruption have further eroded confidence in India’s leadership and it affects all its citizens as they start to compete in the global world.

Summary

India has a great potential to become a superpower in next 50 years. However, for it to become one, its governance has to go through a major overhaul. Until it happens, it will remain a farfetched dream.

The author is CEO, Vikroon Systems