India has a key role to play in global supply chains : Tata Sons Chief

By Trend

India has a huge opportunity to take a leadership role as the emerging geopolitical situation in the post-pandemic world is fundamentally rebalancing the global supply chains, said N Chandrasekaran, Chairman, Tata Sons, on Wednesday, Trend reports citing The Hindu Business Line.

Speaking at the CII Business Summit, Chandrasekaran pointed out key megatrends that will shape the future of countries and economies, such as the need for adoption of AI and data capabilities for all businesses, opportunities due to rebalancing of supply chains besides focus on sustainability and healthcare.

‘India plus opportunity’

“We have experienced supply chain issues arising out of the geopolitical situation and the pandemic. India has an important role to fill in the void that is being created in the global supply chain by taking a leadership position. I call it the “India plus” opportunity. Rebalancing of supply chains will also mean rebalancing of global growth... In the coming decade, we will see that 70 per cent of the growth will come from emerging markets. So, India’s growth is going to be higher than most countries’. At the same time, India’s inflation, I think, for a long time, is going to be lower than inflation in the West. So we are in a very unique situation, “Chandrasekaran stated.

Pointing to the acceleration of digital adoption, he said that no industry can escape this trend and soon all businesses will need to focus on developing AI and data capabilities. “This development is a huge opportunity for India. We are extremely well placed to reimagine the future and reimagine every industry due to our tech- strength. This will really help us to fix the structural problems we have seen in this country. But this is not just about preparing for the domestic industry. This is also for playing a big role globally in every industry,” he added.

‘Focus on holistic growth’

At the same time, he stressed that in order to seize these opportunities, the focus will need to be on holistic growth, and technology will play a key role in achieving this. Underlining the need to eliminate inequality, he pointed out that in the last 10 years alone, the country has lifted about 270 million people out of poverty.

In a bid to become future-ready, the Tata Chief said that the group is not only transforming its core businesses but also creating new businesses to address the supply chain rebalancing opportunity.