|
Round The
World
New Delhi, 7 December 2017
GES 2017
INDIA READY FOR BIG LEAP?
Dr. D.K. Giri
Prof. International Politics, JMI
The 8th
Global Entrepreneurship Summit held recently in Hyderabad was India’s largest
start-up incubator. The choice of India as a venue reflected the recognition of
its growing capacity as one of the world’s large economies. However, it would
need to do a lot more to actualise its big power aspirations.
In all 1500-odd international
delegates from 150 countries attended, half of those being women, given its
title: “Women First Priority for All”. It mobilised women entrepreneurs,
innovators, business networkers to the IT-Hub of India and the biggest
delegation belonged to 38 States of US, led by Ivanka Trump, daughter and
advisor to President Donald Trump.
Since its inception in
2010, the previous seven Summits were held in Washington DC, Istanbul, Dubai,
Marrakesh, (Morocco), Nairobi, Kuala Lumpur, and Silicon Valley (California).
It was for the first time, the Summit was held in South-Asia. Interestingly,
any international business congregation is hosted by China sometime or the
other, but the GES has not touched China, and came to India.
The main Summit was
preceded by 40-odd focussed discussions across India on diverse aspects of
entrepreneurship. Notably, there was one conclave devoted to “activating,
connecting and empowering young citizens across India to become entrepreneurs,
innovators and job creators.” The discussions were path-breaking for the
unemployed groping in the dark.
Entrepreneurship was
discussed in all its diversity and entirety. The running theme across the
sessions was “Women Changing the World”. As samples of the sub-themes, there
was, “Grass-roots Grow: Women in Emerging Markets”, “E-Commerce by women as a
critical tool in scaling entrepreneurship”, etc. This stemmed from the
universal concern that Gender divides on access to technology, nutrition,
health and many other areas in countries preventing women, their families, and
their communities from achieving their full potential.
GES is the
pre-eminent annual entrepreneurship gathering that convenes emerging
entrepreneurs, investors, and eco-system supporters from around the world. It
facilitates entrepreneurs to pitch their ideas, build partnerships, secure
funding for their projects, find their target customers and so on. It also
builds vital connections between the government and the private sector. GES
catalyses investment, promoters networking, mentoring and hands-on activities.
Donald Trump and NaMo
had a telephonic talk after the Summit to pat each other on the back for a
successful Summit. The US Ambassador to India, Ken Juster stated: “The Summit
brought together hundreds of entrepreneurs and investors from all over the
world – an important step towards fostering innovation, growth, prosperity and
creating jobs.”
Seven Summits were
already held in emerging markets, the investment and technology hubs. There are
predictions being made that India may become the biggest economy and thereby
the biggest power by 2050. The prediction is made on the bases of four factors
– population, ICT, Democracy, and ‘underdog’ image. A full discussion on these
four aspects is much beyond the title of this article.
Briefly, India’s
population will continue to grow, as the Chinese population growth will peak.
The UN estimates that by 2050, India will be bigger than China by 357 million,
which is more than total of populations of Germany, Canada, Japan, France,
Australia and South Korea. Look at the size of the country then! How much demographic
dividend it will fetch for the country?
The second is the
growth in ICT- Information and Communication Technology. China’s economy grew
on traditional manufacturing. Not that, it is not important for economic
growth. But India made a choice. It wanted to become the largest supplier of
ICT and entertainment. ‘Slum-filled’ Mumbai is going to be the biggest producer
of films in the world. Bangalore is going to be much bigger software producer
than the Silicon Valley.
The third aspect is
democracy. Although it appears to be clumsy and anarchic democracy is going to
absorb discontent, class contradictions, promote competition, innovation and
maintain some degree of equality. The society is unlikely to erupt into an
apocalypse in a democratic set up. This is not the case with countries like
China. And finally, the ‘underdog’ image, experts would argue that ‘underdog’
perception helps the country to grow quietly, like Japan and Germany did in the
post-war period.
Arguably, India’s
rise to be the super power is a matter of speculative debate, although there
are promising signs of such a probability. But what should worry the patriots
and pro-superpower advocates is the counter-factual behaviour of people
managing Indian economy and governance. The ease of doing business in India is
a chimera. One is reminded of the experiential truth uttered by the former chief
of Alcatel, “India, great people, but terrible market”. This was years ago. One
hoped that things have changed.
But, only yesterday,
I was talking to a French friend who previously worked for Alcatel, and now an
independent consultant for a French Solar Company. He was sharing exasperatedly,
that, his company won a bid at Rs. 3.15 per unit for supplying solar power, up to
250 mw., which was a big success for the company and good for Indian renewable
energy. But alas, the discoms, the State agencies responsible for distribution
would not cooperate. They would put a cap, let us say on 50 mw, or ask for
higher charges, calling for re-bidding.
This is frustrating
for the projects, whilst the Central Agencies will discourage such obstructions
or obduracies, State agencies would not behave. He said, ‘in some areas there
is more regulation and discipline, but in others there is no regulation
whatsoever.” I was embarrassed as India is heading, at present, the
International Solar Mission. A leading columnist Tavleen Singh argues in
“Digital Dreaming” that foreign investors are not lining up at India’s gates.
This is because the bureaucrats do not share the passion of the political
leaders, namely the PM, in digitally transforming India, technology reduces
their powers to control, delay and harass, she says, unless they do this, how
can they qualify as “burra Sahibs”.
In the GES, NaMo
repeated for umpteenth time that he wants foreign business to come, ‘Make in
India’. Even Mamata Banerjee, usually shy of aggressive marketing for her State,
and responsible for throwing away Tatas from West Bengal went to the UK seeking
investment. So far so good. But is our bureaucracy keeping up with such spirit
and enthusiasm?
Let me share a
firsthand insight into how officials in MEA work in attracting investment. This
is about funding the social sector. There is an agreement between India and US
that philanthropists could send duty-free goods for poor in India, apart from
cash. The Agreement signed in 1960 is administered by the Ministry of Social
Justice and Empowerment. For a new charity in the US to be listed as a donor
should be recommended by US Aid, US’ official aid agency. Whenever, a new
request is made for empanelment as a donor for a US charity the Indian
recipient organisation makes a request to the Ministry of Social Justice which
then forwards the name for political clearance to MEA.
The recipient
organisation has made the request nine months ago and is still awaiting a
communication from MEA. The Social Justice Department has sent two reminders to
MEA, but it has not replied yet. There are many such stories of bureaucratic
apathy. Rajiv Gandhi admitted that he could not tame the bureaucracy. Can
Modiji do it, before India is ready for the big leap!----INFA
(Copyright, India
News & Feature Alliance)
|
Archives 
