Indian CEOs More Confident About Growth Than Global Peers: PWC

NEW DELHI: Chief Executive Officers in India are more confident about the growth prospects of their business than global peers and a majority of them are looking at alliances to enter new markets, a PwC study said.

According to PwC's 18th Annual Global CEO Survey, 62 per cent Indian Chief Executive Officers are very confident of their growth prospects in the short term (12 months) - higher than their global peers and up from 49 per cent last year.

"The optimism in India may be more than just the euphoria following a majority growth-oriented government being voted to power at the Centre," the report said, adding that 84 per cent of Indian CEOs see more "opportunities" while only 41 per cent see more "threats".

Further, 71 per cent of CEOs are very confident of growth in the next three years. "CEOs in India seem to be benefiting on both counts - developments within and outside the country. Our survey reflects this exuberance of CEOs about growth of their businesses as also of the economy," PwC India Chairman Deepak Kapoor said.

According to the report, CEOs are ready to collaborate for access to new geographic markets, technologies and customers with 63 per cent planning to enter into new strategic alliances or joint ventures over the next year - the highest percentage since 2010.

The key concern for CEOs in India continues to be inadequate basic infrastructure, while global CEOs are more concerned about over-regulation, increasing tax burden, geo-political uncertainty and government response to fiscal deficit and debt burden.

The only threat common to both global as well as Indian CEOs is the unavailability of key skills, PwC said.

An interesting point is that threat perception in China is much higher than in India across various parameters from increasing tax burden to pandemics to supply chain disruption.

Global CEOs rate India as the sixth most important place for their growth prospect, while for CEOs in India, important market is the U.S., followed by China, UK, Japan and Indonesia.

Moreover, around 82 per cent of the CEOs surveyed in India said they have a strategy to promote diversity and inclusion as against the global 64 per cent, it added.