At the ninth N J Yasaswy Memorial Lecture conducted by ICFAI, Prof Jagdish Sheth said, “ The Covid-19 pandemic may turn out to be in many ways an acceleration of new triad power replacing the old triad power in economics, economy, military, and politics. The new world order will be dominated by US, China, and India.”
“India has all the ingredients to be a superpower but needs the recipe. India has a big consumer market, a large-scale digital talent, a strong contender in the global diaspora, a growing soft power, strong military power, and most importantly is garnering a positive self-image. The recipe for India is to reposition itself from a restricted domestic economy to becoming more and more globally integrated.”
New world order
Prof Sheth further emphasised, “India needs to embrace global standards, and global benchmarks for domestic products and services, become a global sourcing destination, and a hub for technical talent, gain soft power through globally-admired brands, and speed up the digital infrastructure. India must invite foreign investments for global markets, provide huge economic incentive for innovation and entrepreneurship which is already being done with the new NEP 2020 and National Research Fund, but this requires lot more attention. India must enhance human capital through digitization. Vocational/ technical training can significantly increase human capital value.”
Taking the reform-agenda forward
In his presidential address, Dr C Rangarajan said, “India needs to get back to the high growth path through reforms that 1991 saw. Without being a strong economic power, it cannot become a strong political participant in this world.” While agreeing with many of the recommendations made by Prof Sheth, Dr Rangarajan said, “India needs a prudent financial system capable of supporting the growth momentum. There’s a need to raise investment ratio and ensure financial system is prudent and capable of providing the wherewithal for the economy to grow.”
“We need to take the reform-agenda forward; we need to apply the spirit of liberalisation as much as possible to every area. The present state of the economy is not very convincing, we need to move faster and get the rate of growth as quickly as possible to eight per cent or nine per cent per annum in the coming years,” Dr Rangarajan said.
Earlier, welcoming the audience, Dr J Mahender Reddy, Vice-Chancellor, IFHE, spoke about the contribution of Late Mr N J Yasaswy, the founder of ICFAI Group of educational institutions, in promoting higher education in the private sector in India.