BUILDING INDIA INC – SWOT @ 2005
DMS-IIT-Delhi

29th October 2005

Goldman Sachs foresees India, along with China, Brazil and Russia becoming one of the biggest forces in world economy by 2050. To achieve the status of an economic super power India needs to continuously move on the path of sustainable development. As India marches towards economics dominance, its essential for us to pause and analyze our strengths and weaknesses in the light of current opportunities and threats.

The Department of Management Studies, IIT Delhi decided to tread this path of analysis hand in hand with the industry and the policy makers of the nation at its annual seminar series “Building India Inc. – SWOT @ 2005” on the 29th October 29, 2005. Not only was this seminar an analysis but it also served as a workshop to prepare and train budding managers to bring about positive changes in the economic growth of the country.
The seminar started with an introduction of the topic by Prof. Surendra S. Yadav. Then Prof. Vinayshil Gautam made his remarks about the evolution of management education in IIT Delhi. The chief guest, Dr. PS Rana, CMD, HUDCO, talked about the requirement of re-thinking on the development strategy of the country. He said the development has to be an integrated process rather than talkig about it in terms of rural and urban development separately. Mr. Satya Poddar highlighted the importance of the reform process that was started in early 90s and has since been carried on despite road blocks here and there. Mr.MK Venu, senior editor, The Economic Times talked about the importance of liberalization taking an example of ASEAN countries and other developing regions of the world, which have made progress because of liberal environment.

This was followed by three separate sessions each focusing on a different sectors:

Session 1: Manufacturing and Consumer Goods
Session 2: Banking Financial Services and Insurance
Session 3: Information communication & Technology

First session began with Prof. Rajat K. Baisya introducing the topic with focus on manufacturing and consumer goods industry. Referring to the BRIC report and the increasing competitiveness of the Indian market, he highlighted the importance of focusing on core competency.

Mr. Rajiv Karwal carried forward the discussion by giving the Indian firms a mandate to innovate. Innovation and R&D;, he said, will be the key driving factors for the growth of any firm in the future. He left the dais with a plethora of thought provoking question for the house to ponder over.

Mr. KJ Gupta, talked about the paradigm shift of focus in the manufacturing industry with Indian companies seeking to grow bigger. He also talked about the changing consumer behavior and their increasing awareness.
Dr. Sanjeev Gemawat, AVP, Head (Legal) & Company Secretary, JCB India, shared his views about building India’s infrastructure. He also spoke about the potential in ITES and auto ancillaries industries and said that India’s main weaknesses and threats lay in its labour laws.

Session 2:

The second session was flagged off by Prof. S.S Yadav, the head of the department of management studies who portrayed the banking and financial services industry in the lights of our strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.
The first speaker for the session was Mr.Venugopal, Deputy General Manager, State Bank of India who analysed the banking industry and the scenario for the future. He said that the biggest problem in India was that people save in physical assets like gold, which hampered the circulation of money and thus reducing the funds available with banks to contribute towards new and large initiatives. He also underlined the importance of domestic savings for infrastructure development.
The second speaker was Mr. Lalit Wangikar, Senior Consultant, Inductis who spoke to the gathering about the focus of consumer financial services. He analysed the present state of affairs, the growth prospect, the lacunae present and the solutions to bridge this gap.
The third speaker for the session was Prof. Najmal Hasan, from the University of Tempere, Finland. He highlighted some strengths of India and Finland, which could be used for greater cooperation between not only Nordic region and India, but also entire Europe and India.

Session 3:

The third session focused on Information and Communication Technology. The first speaker was Mr. C. Kajwadkar, Senior VP, NSEIT Ltd. He elaborated on the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the technology side of the National Stock Exchange, and stressed on the importance of technology in the stock markets and the need for mindful markets. He emphasized the need for socially responsible investments.

Mr. Manoj Chugh, President (India and SAARC), EMC, said that there are three laws of information: All information that is created is not equal; the value of information changes with time and it is bidirectional. He stressed that the ability to create the right intelligent information infrastructure is the key to success.
The third speaker of the session was Mr. Manu Khullar, Senior Director (IT AMIS), ST Microelectronics. He addressed the gathering, speaking about running IT as a business from within an organisation. He analysed ICT with an Indian organisation’s perspective and stressed on the importance of IT during mergers and acquisitions.

Mr.Ashok Mehra, Global Head (Business Change), TCS Ltd, concluded the session by highlighting the relevant points in the session and discussed the IT advantage for India. His emphasis was on the importance of the thought process.

The event served as a platform to bring together the government, the corporate, the media and the academia to deliberate on issues and challenges facing the nation and share their experiences and views with the larger audience.