Horasis India Meeting24-25 June 2018, Malaga, Spain

a Horasis leadership event

Co-hosts:City of MalagaProvince of MalagaConfederation of Indian Industry (CII)

Report

© Horasis

2018 –All rights reserved

The publication was prepared in cooperation with IE Business School, Madrid, Spain.

The statements quoted in the publication do not necessarily represent the views or opinions ofHorasis and IE Business School. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmittedin any form or by any means.

Inspiring our future

Upcoming Horasis events:

Horasis China Meeting Kiev, Ukraine, 14-15 October 2018

Horasis Asia Meeting Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, 25-26 November 2018

Horasis Global Meeting Cascais, Portugal, 6-9 April 2019

Horasis India Meeting Kiev, Ukraine, 23-24 June 2019

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Horasis India Meeting 24-25 June 2018, Malaga, Spain a Horasis leadership event

Co-hosts:City of Malaga

Province of Malaga

Confederation of Indian Industry (CII)

Co-chairs:Mukesh Aghi President and CEO, US-India Strategic Partnership Forum, USA

Mary V. Andringa Chair of the Board, Vermeer Corporation, USA

Claude Beglé President, SymbioSwiss, Switzerland

Dinesh Dhamija Chairman, Copper Beech Group, United Kingdom

Prakash Hinduja Chairman Europe, Hinduja Group, Switzerland

Rajive Kaul Past President AIMA; Chairman, Nicco Group, India

Shiv Khera Founder, Qualified Learning Systems, USA

Sanjay Kirloskar Chairman, Kirloskar Brothers; Vice President, AIMA, India

Arun M. Kumar Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, KPMG India, India

Rakesh Bharti Mittal Vice Chairman, Bharti Enterprises; President, CII, India

R Mukundan Managing Director, Tata Chemicals, India

Sunil Kant Munjal Chairman, Hero Corporate Services, India

Ratul Puri Chairman, Hindustan Power, India

B.V.R. Mohan Reddy Executive Chairman, Cyient, India

Murat Seitnepesov Chief Executive Officer, Integral Petroleum, Switzerland

Henry Shterenberg President, Suntri Inc, Ukraine/USA

Gunjan Sinha Chairman, MetricStream, USA

Ron Somers Founder and Chief Executive Officer, India First Group, USA

Neil Stevenson Managing Director, International Integrated Reporting Council, United Kingdom

Michael Stopford Managing Director, Oxford Analytica, United Kingdom

Frank G. Wisner Under Secretary of State (ret.), USA

Co-organizers:All India Management Association (AIMA)

Casa de la India

IE Business School

PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry

Oxford Analytica

Strategic Partner:KPMG

Official Airline:Qatar Airways

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A reception at the Hotel Miramar

Hotel Miramar, venue of the 2018 Horasis India Meeting

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In front of the Hotel Miramar

Table of Contents

Foreword 6

Summary 13

The Importance of Inclusive Growth 14

Building on the Key Asset: Human Capital 19

Technological Breakthrough towards Global Leadership 21

Change of Model in International Collaborations 28

India and Spain 39

Outlook 43

Indian Business Leaders of the Year 44

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Foreword

By Frank-Jürgen Richter, Chairman, Horasis, Switzerland

The tenth Horasis Indian Meeting took placein Malaga, Spain over 25-25th June 2018.This meeting was hosted by the City ofMalaga, the Province of Malaga, and theConfederation of Indian Industry (CII)attracting more than 300 Indian and globalbusiness leaders and government officialsto Malaga. Through this Meeting, Horasisaims to present an interdisciplinary andsystemic view of India and its place in thepolitical and commercial world, reviewingthe drivers across all sectors that contri buteto its present and future well-being. Thelocation of this meeting rotates annually: it has been held in Munich (2009), Madrid(2010), Naples (2011), Antwerp (2012),Belfast (2013), Liverpool (2014), Inter -laken (2015), Cascais (2016) and again inInterlaken (2017).

The meeting acted as a show-case for Indiaand Spanish firms to come to a mutualunderstanding of how joint benefits mayaccrue. The present time is proving to beone of continuing vigor, or as some mightsay, chaos; with changes that affect Indiaoriginating in Europe and the US, as well as

deriving from its own dynamism betweenits 29 States, seven Union Territories andthe Central Government. India is a vastcountry and expresses its differences withits cross-border neighbors. The HorasisIndia Meeting began with a review of eventsin India and round the world during the pastyear to provide a base upon which to con -tinue the panel and plenary discussions.

There meeting co-chairs who offeredmentoring and joined the plenary discus -sions were: Mukesh Aghi, President andCEO, US-India Strategic PartnershipForum, USA; Mary V. Andringa, Chairof the Board, Vermeer Corporation, USA;Claude Beglé, President, SymbioSwiss,Switzerland; Dinesh Dhamija, Chairman,Copper Beech Group, United Kingdom;Prakash Hinduja, Chairman Europe,Hinduja Group, Switzerland; Rajive Kaul,Chairman, Nicco Group, India; Shiv Khera,Founder, Qualified Learning Systems, USA;Sanjay Kirloskar, Chairman, KirloskarBrothers; Arun M. Kumar, Chairman,KPMG India, India; Rakesh Bharti Mittal,Vice Chairman, Bharti Enterprises; R Mukundan, Managing Director, TataChemicals, India; Sunil Kant Munjal,Chairman, Hero Corporate Services, India;Ratul Puri, Chairman, Hindustan Power,India; B.V.R. Mohan Reddy, Executive

Delegates arrive for the opening reception

Ram Madhav, National General Secretary, Bharatiya Janata Party,keynoting the Horasis India Meeting

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Chairman, Cyient, India; MuratSeitnepesov, Chief Executive Officer,Integral Petroleum, Switzerland; HenryShterenberg, President, Suntri Inc,Ukraine/USA; Gunjan Sinha, Chairman,MetricStream, USA; Ron Somers, Founderand Chief Executive Officer, India FirstGroup, USA; Neil Stevenson, ManagingDirector, International Integrated;Michael Stopford, Managing Director,Oxford Analytica, United Kingdom; andFrank G. Wisner, Under Secretary ofState (ret.), USA.

The meeting opened with a series of updatesessions to remind the delegates what hasoccurred during the last year. These subjectsincluded India’s Politics, its Society, itsForeign Relations and its views on theFuture of Work as well as a session uponchanges in Spain. The Meeting’s receptionfollowed, together with a Welcome addressby the co-hosts Francisco de la Torre,Mayor of Malaga, Spain and RakeshBharti Mittal, Vice Chairman, BhartiEnterprises; President, CII, India whostated they were particularly proud to holdthis jubilee meeting in Malaga, a city withstrong historic ties with India. Later in theevening we applauded Rahul Bajaj,Chairman, Bajaj Group, India who hasinspired the Horasis India Meeting from

the beginning, and also Niraj Sharan,Chairman and Chief Executive Officer,Aura, USA who has attended all ten ofmeetings so far. Detailed coverage of allthe panels and plenaries are noted in thesummary of this report.

Ram Madhav, National General Secretary,Bharatiya Janata Party, India gave a strongspeech during the opening dinner in whichhe stated how well India was now per for -ming, not only economically but acrossmany social sectors. It was important tonote how much of India is becomingconnected – not only with simple electricalpower, but digitally too. He agreed thegreat changes created by the BJP under the

During the opening plenary

Francisco de la Torre, Mayor of Malaga, welcoming participants

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guidance of Prime Minister Modi will leadto many future developments – not onlythe new smart cities that will help absorbthe massive rural to urban migration, butalso the development of better transportinfrastructure that will benefit all sectors,including tourism. He also applauded theinventiveness of Indian farmers – one ofwhom (Yogesh Nagar from Rajasthan)invented a GPS controlled tractor to allowhis farther to sit away from the machine torelieve the pains caused by sitting on thetractor. Mr Madhav noted Yogesh had appliedto the Make in India fund to support thisinvention.

The Indian government is now in its fourthyear under Prime Minister Narendra Modi

and is, like many economies, under threatbecause of unfavorable global conditionsand some sluggishness in India’s ruraleconomy. However global crude oil priceshave doubled to about $80 per barrel in ashort time causing instabilities in manynations and in India in particular, beingdependent on a rapid rise in energy availa -bi lity. Many of these externalities canimpinge on the forthcoming electionswhen – like elsewhere across the globe –electorate may vent their anger. It will beunfortunate for India if Mr Modi suffersthis, as his expansionist policies are cominginto fruition and the nation is on the brinkof achieving fulfilling action, and not justpursuing wishful hopes.

For instance, a positive achievement of theIndian economy over the past years hasbeen the rapid rise in inward direct invest -ment which has lifted it from Moody’s‘fragile five’. Without doubt these flowswill continue to rise notwithstanding thefinancial shock which hit small firms andindividuals as Mr Modi withdrew largedenomination currency notes. In part, theincrease in inwards FDI has been achievedby regulation reduction (or the removal ofhistoric restrictions that served no purpose).Combined with other initiatives by the endof 2017, India rose 42 places on the Ease of

Frank-Jürgen Richter, Gunjan Sinha and Mukesh AghiRakesh Bharti Mittal, Vice Chairman, Bharti Enterprises;President, CII, during the welcome reception

Prakash Hinduja, Chairman Europe, Hinduja Group

Marc Sanderson, CEO, Malaga Open for Business

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Doing Business index, moved 32 places upthe Global Competitiveness index, and 19places up the Logistics Performance index.

The 2018 Indian Economic Survey statesthe Goods and Services Act (GST) has beenwidely heralded for many things, especiallyits potential to create a single Indian market,expand the tax base, and foster cooperativefederalism. Yet almost unnoticed is its oneenormous benefit: it will create a vastrepository of information, which will en -large and surely alter our understanding ofIndia’s economy as a whole. Much excitingnew research lies ahead. Big Data analyticsis coming to the India economy now thatdata is being collected coherently. No doubtthere will be questions raised about datasecurity and the potential for invasions ofprivacy – but the ability to collect coherentdata from the whole country will enableregional differences to be studied that werehidden prior to GST. The variations willindicate where development aid might bebest applied, or from where ideas may betransferred to boost poorer performers.

An important broad aspect is that the Banksare facing a clean out. Their systems weresubject to weak management and guidedby poor risk assessment and resulted in ahuge collection of low or non-performing

loans. Presently the Indian banking sector issuffering its largest losses, and 2018 mightbe its darkest time while the assets slippagepeaks, but is forecast to fall by 2020.

As India’s growth took place while itspopulation quickly increased it has fallen toMr Modi to grasp the problem and initiategreat changes. One of the transformationsis seen in the betterment of transportinfrastructures – new transit systems andbetter social behavior permit freer roadand rail traffic. Such changes benefit theagriculture sector as there is less loss dueto poor gathering and storage – both forrice in the south and wheat in the north.Having enough nourishment is fundamen -tal to the development of the nation.

Mayor de la Torre and Minister Vishal Chordia Dinesh Dhamija, Chairman, Copper Beech Group, United Kingdom

Michael Stopford, Managing Director, Oxford Analytica, UK,chairing a panel

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Just as GST will offer many transforma tionsalready Big Data is offering substantivechange in the agricultural sector. Many ofthe innovations are taking place in regionsthat have already suffered labor losses withthe rural young moving to the cities lookingfor better opportunities. This led the way tofarm aggregation and a greater mechaniza -tion, and these days to robotization in orderto undertake the many husbandry tasks withfewer workers. Once India was noted aslosing 40 percent between field and fork,this is changing rapidly as better manage -ment of farms, animals and field areinstigated. The long gestation period ofhope to fulfillment is being achieved bothat farm manager level and equipmentmanu facturing – like the development ofdriverless tractors at affordable prices; theuse of solar panels to power farms andwarehouses using ‘clean energy’ modes;the instigation of India-wide on-line agri-experts like MyAgriGuru that can advise onthe plants to grow in each region (ie, betterable to deal with low-water conditions); or multi-cropping with mulching and drip-feed irrigation. All these ideas are nowsupported coherently by governmentministries.

Tellingly the Economic Survey concludesin its chapter on Science and Technologythat historically, India can point to manycontributions to global scientific know -ledge and technological achievement. Butpresently, India under-spends on researchand development (R&D), even relative toits level of development. A doubling ofR&D spending is necessary and much ofthe increase should come from the privatesector and universities. To recapture thespirit of innovation that can propel it to aglobal science and technology leader fromnet consumer to net producer of knowledgeIndia should invest in educating its youthin science and mathematics, reform theway R&D is conducted, engage the privatesector and the Indian diaspora, and take amore mission-driven approach.

It is important to follow the young childnutrition drive and let these young people,both boys and girls demand a goodmeaningful education. The Annual Schoolachievement surveys sees too many childrenattend secondary school and achieve little,then being launched into the world of workwith poor ability to read, write and under -take arithmetic. This belies the perceiveddemographic dividend of India’s large youthcohort. Better education will only result inthe children of today becoming effective

Frank G.Wisner, US Under Secretary of State (ret.), in discussion with Neena Gill, Member of the European Parliament Mary V. Andringa, Chair of the Board, Vermeer Corporation, USA

Parag Amin, Chief Mentor andFounding Director, iCreate, USA

Sushma Paul Berlia, President,Apeejay Stya & Svran Group

Jose Antonio Martinez, Founder and CEO, The Science of Digital, Spain

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managers in 20 years unless remedialeducation is offered to the older childrenpermitting them to work more effectivelyin society. Happily the govern ment isinitiating a multi-layered re-educationinitiative designed to develop the abilitiesof older youths who missed out in theirschool years. This top down approach is tiedalso to an initiative to get better teachersinto schools to develop a critical thinkingapproach to fit the children for whateverthey may find in the world work in lateryears – they must be adaptable.

Obviously it can’t be single handed, butMr Modi has vitalised his senior staff, whoin turn press lower ranks into a ‘can do’process. It has been difficult to drive India’sdiversity. Even so, a new ‘road map’ isneeded before the next elections, and eventhen the BJP may have to enter into agree -ments with other parties to form a coalitionparty. This will be an anxious ‘wait and see’situation. India needs a clear ‘Agenda forGrowth’ with changes to employment lawsand other reforms, deeper reform of theCourts systems, and Constitutional changes.But politics and politicians consider theirjob is a business looking for personal gains,not a public benefit. There has to be a realchange in attitude from politicians, manyof whom were considered to be past their

‘sell by date’ and in need of a shake-downby Mr Modi.

Overall, we see India as a growth engine,very much changed from former yearswhen there was only grim hope. Now Indiais vibrant, and achieving.Yet there is still alot to do and this Horasis India Meeting wasto be an energetic forum for discus sion,debate – and above all, learning about itsfuture global positioning and direction.

Horasis – community building and engagement

Rajive Kaul, Chairman, Nicco Group, making a point

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The discussants through Horasis suggestedthree simple but comprehensive stagedreforms are needed.

• First ensure good gender free educationaimed at developing critical thinking, notrote learning as neither the children of5 years onwards nor their teachers knowwhat jobs will be available 10 years on.Their ability to critique will open moredoors than simply being able to read andwrite. The government also under standsit might depend on its extensive diasporaof post-doc entrepreneurs that haveraised productivity across the hi-techUS. By agreeing with the US on a bi-lateral movement of entrepreneursboth nations might benefit.

• Second the whole infrastructure needsmodernisation. India as a developingnation has the opportunity to shop roundthe globe for the best options and not tohave to rely upon modernising legacysystems that now hamper Europe andthe US. One might recall the rapidglobalisation that was supported as theUS and Europe developed their inter-state road networks from the 1960sonwards. Rural India has ample space toinstall high speed railways, build superhighways and create township airports

as well as re-develop its short-seashipping. These will enable rapid growthof modern industrialisation increasinglabour use even though the firms willbenefit from robotisation and thesoftware industry famous in India.

• Third, cities themselves need to become‘smart’. The new cities on internalhigh-speed routes are relatively easy tobuild, but the mega cities are a greaterproblem, especially their slums that havetaken on a mini-infrastructure of theirown. In some cases a rebuild next doorwill be the answer, and then level thedifficult-to-manage old town. Cities haveto be ‘smart’ as they generate clusters ofknowledge and skill upon which econo -mies depend. How to nurture a ‘newsmart’ is a vexing question.

Horasis welcomes delegates to take part inthe 2019 Horasis India Meeting that will beheld in Kiev, Ukraine over 24-25th June 2019.

Setting the Agenda for India’s Economy

Yatindra R Sharma, Managing Director, KHS India

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SummaryIE is honored to be a learning partner of theHorasis India Meeting 2018. As a leadingEuropean higher education institutionlocated in Madrid, Spain, and with delega -tions in 28 countries including Mumbai,India, and programs in cities that includeMadrid, Segovia, Cape Town, San Francisco,Los Angeles, Providence, Sao Paulo,Singapore, and Shanghai, IE has a networkof over 60,000 alumni with a markedlyinternational profile who work and live in165 countries.

IE deeply relates to the importance ofbuilding strong India-Spain relations byeducating a cohort of incredibly talentedstudents every year, giving its best to shapeleaders with a global vision, an entrepre neu -rial mindset and a humanistic approach tofoster innovation and change in organizationsand drive economies forward.

Through a learning environment wheretechnologies and diversity play a key roleand with programs in fields that includebusiness administration, law, finance, inter -national relations, architecture, big data andtechnology, communication and media,and human behavior, IE’s 500 professorsshape future leaders from 128 countries,

generating knowledge and undertakingresearch projects with social impact.

This report has been compiled in a jointeffort by the following IE alumni: ArpitPanjwani, Dev Bhargava, Somya Nigam,Gopi Pepakayala, Neha Aggarwal, SushantPasumarty, Shanmukha Chitrachedu, SoniaSahni, Shubham Gupta, Gaurav Sharma,Irina Deneaunu and Tetyana Kretova.Supported by the Regional Government ofMalaga, the Horasis India Meeting was ahighly inspirational and visionary series ofplenary sessions and briefing breakfasts withsome of the world’s renowned leaderswho brought to us a number of key ideason the future of India and opportunities forjoint growth between Spain and India.

Balvinder Singh Powar, Professor, IE Business School, about India’s technology unicorns Borja Gonzalez del Regueral, Vice Dean, IE School of Human Sciences and Technology, Spain

Gonzalo Pérez, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Gehoko

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The Importance of Inclusive Growth The young and growing population of Indiarepresents both its key challenge due to the vasteconomic disparity and its biggest opportunitygiven the country is mastering the tide ofinclusive growth.

The plenary session on Inclusive Growthtouched upon a common thread in many ofthe discussions at Horasis. Technology as afactor to improve inclusiveness, the challen -ges associated with technology, namely jobsand re- and upskilling people to ensure jobgrowth and provide a market driven busi -ness model to make sure businesses andentrepreneurs can increase the pie foreveryone. William Davila, Professor ofEconomics, IE Business School, Spain,chairing the session pointed out the need tocreate employment and address inequality,highlighting that India is ranked number 62when it comes to inclusion while China isin the top 20 already, and yet they arecountries growing in parallel. HenryShterenberg, President, Suntri Inc.,Ukraine/USA, added that the idea ofinclusion varies not only amongst countriesbut also amongst cultures and individuals.To be able to solve such differences, theworld needs to be able to create oppor tu -nities that allow people to pursue theirdreams regardless of where they are or

where they come from. He also stated thatthe return of Indian students from abroadto work in India has increased over timebecause the Government has been trying tocreate more job opportunities. He stronglybelieved that the one major mistakeeveryone is making is not teaching theirchildren adaptation. Adaptation in hisopinion is one of the key features ofinclusion. Sanjay Kirloskar, Chairman,Kirloskar Brothers, India, remarked thattechnology is needed to increase produc -tivity in industries such as Agriculture.

B.V.R. Mohan Reddy, Executive Chair -man, Cyient, India, said, ‘Technologyintervention will ensure affordability andscalability and that will lead to inclusive -ness’. Another thread that was picked bythe panel was CSR (Corporate SocialResponsibility) and how that has led tomore inclusiveness. R. Mukundan, MD,Tata Chemicals, India, mentioned how cor -porations have brought their best business

Technology is needed to increaseproductivity in industries such asAgriculture.Sanjay Kirloskar, Chairman, Kirloskar Brothers, India

Henry Shterenberg, President, Suntri Inc, Ukraine, speaking about inclusive growth

Sanjay Kirloskar, Chairman, Kirloskar Brothers,making a point

William Davila, Professor of Marketing, IE Business School, Spain

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practices to CSR and how that has improvedaccountability and measurement of impact.B.V.R. Reddy also agreed, saying CSR hasimproved inclusiveness. Another area thatwas discussed during the panel was theintellectual capital in India and how inter -national companies leverage that opportu -nity. ‘Of all the patents filed globally byNovell, 28% happened in India, GeneralElectric 12%. Global companies are reallyusing the intellectual capital in India to drivetheir innovation,’ remarked R. Mukundan.‘This phenomenon will lead to more inno -vation coming out of India and in turnensure growth and inclusiveness as a whole,’he said. Some other issues that were broughtto attention by R Mukundan were environ -ment and accountability. He stated thatinclusion should also focus on the environ -ment especially in India; with such adiverse culture, it can be very complicatedto unite everyone. William Davila endedthe panel by highlighting that a relevanteconomic model needs to be developedwhich best suits the India we know today.

During the panel on Indian Society chairedby Anuradha Ananth, Journalist andHeritage Expert, Germany, all speakerscollectively deliberated the importance ofIndia’s rich culture, heritage, and family life,in particular. Prakriti Poddar, ManagingTrustee, Poddar Foundation, spoke aboutmental health disharmony and lack ofexpressing emotions by the nation eventhough Indians are emotional at large. She said, ‘We haven’t taught our peopleresilience yet,’ also expressing her concernabout addiction to technology. PallaviAshish Korgaonkar, CEO, KorgaonkarGroup, emphasized the importance ofgiving back to society and said, ‘There are alot of flaws in parenting today,’ reinforcingthe importance of keeping Indian traditions.

Technology intervention will ensureaffordability and scalability and thatwill lead to inclusiveness.B.V.R. Mohan Reddy, Executive Chairman, Cyient, India

Anuradha Ananth, Journalist and Heritage Expert, reflecting about India’s society

Meeting co-chair R Mukundan, Managing Director, Tata Chemicals

Ron Somers, Founder and CEO, India First Group, USA, in discussion with Arun M. Kumar, Chairman and CEO, KPMG India

Brajindar Mohan Singh, Member of the Board, Anant Raj Limited

Alicia Garcia-Herrero, Chief Economist for Asia Pacific,Natixis, Hong Kong

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Alok Shriram, Chairman DCM ShriramIndustries, was particularly certain of theimportance of schools in imparting valuesand morality. The session also addressed theimportance of women’s rights, hygieneand tolerance. All members present in theroom agreed that it is the collectiveresponsibility of parents, schools andcommunity to promote Indian values andmake every effort (including the use oftechnology) to minimize the worst andincrease empathy. ‘I saw empathy beingtaught to a robot, so we can definitelyimpart it to millennials (through engage -ment).’ Storytelling by elders is the wayforward in today’s aspirational society.‘You can’t outsource care of your child,’said Prakriti Poddar.

The panel discussion on Gender Gapchaired by Raji Jayaraman, Professor,ESMT Berlin, Germany, addressed thisissue in India and what strategies need tobe developed to help boost women inbusiness and senior leadership positions.‘The gender gap situation in India isimproving. There is a lot of focus onrespect for women. The solution is todisrupt culture,’ shared Rekha Sethi,Director General, All India ManagementAssociation (AIMA), India. ‘Womenaccount for 13% of board members in Indiaand 7% alone are in top managementpositions.’While concerns have beenexpressed around safety, paymentinequality and education of women,there’s unanimous consensus that India is onthe right track, and more and more IIMsand IITs are now looking at ways to reducethe gender gap. Vanitha Datla, ManagingDirector, Elico Healthcare Services, India,added that there are many qualified women,but ‘change has to start with education athome and working with the Governmentto issue policies to address women in thework force,’ to help gender equality.Babita Bhatt, Professor, AustralianNational University, Australia, emphasizedthat ‘the reason why the gender gap stillpersists relates to access to resources,’ andSrita Heide, Indo-European Business

Juan Manuel Guimerans, Director for Culture and Tourism, City Council of Madrid

Prakriti Poddar, Managing Trustee, Poddar Foundation

Babita Bhatt, Professor, Australian National University, Australia

Raji Jayaraman, Professor, ESMT Berlin, Germany

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Advisor, Germany, pointed out that socialdisparity, the right to education, the alloca -tion of resources and the gender gap are notonly a problem in India, they are a globalproblem. ‘We live in a country that rankshigh up on the world economic arena, andwe need to encourage all countries tomake this issue part of their Agenda,’ shesaid. Adrian Mutton, Founder & CEO,Sannam S4, said it’s imperative to ‘imple -ment social confidence which will enablewomen to express more and this will helpreduce the gender gap.’ Riya Sinha,Founder, Fuzia, USA, concluded that thereis a need for more women on policyformulating boards, to take on more socialresponsibility roles and lecture in schools.What you measure is what you can improveand governments should create simplemeasures for diversity.

Bobby Bedi, Vice President, Film Fede ra -tion of India, India, stated that issues mainlyexist because people tend to associate withpeople who have similar interests to thembecause of their own comfort level. There -fore, if you put two culturally differentpeople together they will judge one anotherwithout even knowing each other first.‘There should be an understanding betweentwo people who want to work together,and if this doesn’t exist, then nothing can

be done about the cultural difference.’Guillermo Rodriguez, Director, Casa dela India, Spain said that India is so culturallydiverse it almost makes no sense, Punjab issimilar to Pakistan and south India is similarto Sri Lanka. Having such a diverse groupmakes it hard for the country to worktogether as a whole. Therefore, one cansimply pay attention to cultural initiativesespecially when it comes to inter-cultureand inter-religion tensions and conflicts,which still exist in India at a national level.Rajnandan Patnaik, Dean, IMT Dubai,UAE, pointed out that ‘Media plays a hugerole in civil society, it gives voice todiscrimination, conflicts and promoteshuman rights. India’s culture is slowlydeveloping with its youth, however, thereis still a long way to go.’ Juan ManuelGuimerans, Director for Culture andTourism, City Council of Madrid, Spain,Spain, stressed the importance of creativityand technology saying, ‘Countries that havecreated an environment of creativity, inno -vation and entrepreneurship have seen animmense growth; technology in the privatesector also increases our employability.’While Pablo Piqueras, Vice President,Influencers International, Spain, said,‘Trade flows internationally have a positiveimpact on economic growth, the EU haseastern partnerships allowing them to grow

Meeting co-chair Sunil Kant Munjal, Chairman, Hero Corporate Services

Satya Narayanan, Chairman, CL Educate

Richard Smith-Bingham,Director, Global Risk Center,Marsh & McLennan Companies

B.V.R. Mohan Reddy, Executive Chairman, Cyient Rekha Sethi, Director General, All India Management Association

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regionally and internationally despite thedifferences between countries and theircultures. ‘It is important to find a commonground in order to grow,’ concludedRamji Natarajan, Chairman, TMIC FilmTourism, India.

During the Social Imperative dialogue ses -sion chaired by Israr Qureshi, Pro fessor,Australian National University, Australia,some speakers believed that there was notenough money being invested in socialventures. David Mark Dror, FoundingChairman, MicroInsurance Academy,India, pointed out that the problem wasthe opposite, ‘The money is there to beinvested, but there are not that many good

projects for companies to invest in and seefinancial results.’ Additionally, as ParagAgarwal, Chairman, Janajal, India,mentio ned there is a problem in the wayprofit is classified in the same bracket asprofiteering when it comes to socialbusinesses. Parag Agarwal said, ‘CSRmakes companies feel like the giver.’ ‘Thisneeds to be redefined as moral and socialresponsibility; at the end of the day it is intheir own interest,’Michael Pedersen,Founder, M INC. > change the game,Denmark, added. In her turn, MynooBlackbyrn, Founder, POEM Foundation,United Kingdom, said, ‘The foundation isdignity. If dignity is compromised thennothing is sustainable.’Ulrich Randoll,Chief Scientific Officer, Dr. RandollInstitute, Germany, agreed to that saying itis important to think how we grow ‘withhumanity or not, since evolution is alwayssustainable.’ Mr. Randoll stressed, ‘Nobodythinks of shifting the system back to normal.It is about taking a pill for any symptom,instead of just going back to basics.’At thesame time Carlos Marquerie Tamayo,Founder, Moonshot, Spain, suggested thesolution for India could be to acceleratedisruptive technologies to prototype in India.

Delegates debate India’s approach to educationIsrar Qureshi, Professor, Australian National University, chairing a panel

Mynoo Blackbyrn, Founder, POEM Foundation, United Kingdom,making a comment from the floor

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Building on the Key Asset: Human Capital Blessed with human capital, India has anurgent need to find its way of educating andtraining young people to be competitive on themarket and drive the economy forward.

Chaired by Aanya Sharan, Ambassador,Horasis Young Visionaries, India, the sessionon Millennial Influence suggested that inIndia the same global trends are beingobserved with the need for job-focusedtraining and soft skills development beingnamed as just a few of those to be urgentlyaddressed. ‘For a large percentage of theworkforce there is a gap between what youlearn and what is needed. How can webridge this gap?’ started the session Mr.Sharan, drawing the audience’s attentionto the issue of the lack of the right skillsand unemployment. Ramji Raghavan,Chairman, Agastya International Founda tion,India, responded that, ‘Lack of a curiousspirit, and a lack of problem solving skillsare the main reasons of unemployment inIndia,’ suggesting, ‘We’ll never have enoughjobs for everyone. Youngsters need to learnhow to create jobs for themselves andothers; this is where entrepreneurshipcomes into play.’Neha Berlia, Member ofManagement Board, Apeejay Stya Group,India, pointed this out from a slightly

different perspective through productivity,‘There is clear overemployment becauseover twenty people in India do the sameamount of work that two people in the EUcan do.’ Also reinforcing the need forproper skills training, ‘People are greatinter viewers, but cannot deliver on thefloor.’ Priya Prakash, Founder and CEO,HealthSetGo, India, continued saying,‘There’s too much validation for childrentoday – too many participation and 100%attendance medals. Kids are being coddledand told they are special.’ Reeti Roy,Founder, Aglet Ink, India, responded in the form of advice suggesting, ‘I advisemillennials to look for the best fit for thejob, not the job that looks sexiest.’ VenkatMatoory, Strategic Board Advisor, CBA,India drew attention to the lack of basichygienic facilities for girls, which is a dis -couraging factor that needs to be addressed.With an overall forecast by the ILO reportthat there will be about 18.9 million un -employed people in 2018, the participantsagreed on the need for a joint effort in ad -dres sing the topics of employment throughthe development of the proper set of skills,as well as changes in recruitment and HRmanagement cycles.

Bobby Bedi, Vice President, Film Federation of India, speaking about the impact of Bollywood

Alok Shriram, Chairman, DCM Shriram Industries

Jose Luis Gil Zafra, Co-founder,Fishfishme

Ramji Raghavan, Chairman, Agastya International Foundation

Aanya Sharan, Ambassador, Horasis Young Visionaries,chairing the panel on millennials

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The speakers of the session on the Futureof Work chaired by Lou Marinoff,Professor of Philosophy, The City Collegeof New York, USA, centered around thecurrent systems of education and how theyare not yet adapted to the rapid pace ofchange in technology. While new techno lo -gy such as AI and automation were expectedto shrink the job market, Sunil NihalDuggal, CEO, Nihal Group Enterprises,India, expected that new jobs would becreated to compensate for the loss but therewill need to be reskilling of labor to makesure that employees are employable. Theshared concern covered the readiness ofeducation systems to handle the changes intechnology. Avi Basu, CEO and Founder,Argolis, USA, stated, ‘We have to expectthe chaos of unemployment as well asapprehension around these new technolo -gies for the next couple of decades.’ Thepanel also remarked how these new tech -nologies mean that self-employment willbe the norm and how continuous learningwill be the key to ensure employability. Tothat end, Sameer Dua, Founder Director,Institute of Generative Leadership, India,remarked, ‘We have to learn how to learn,’and how students, especially in India werebeing put into a knowledge expandingmode rather than a learning mode. MarkRunacres, Member of the Supervisory

Board, Elara Capital, Singapore, said, ‘It isclear that India’s education system is farbehind where it needs to be to unleash thecapacity of its people,’ and that the Govern -ment needs to make it easy for entrepre neursto solve these problems and reduce regu -latory hurdles. Lou Marinoff ended thediscussion on the note that stressed theimportance of humanities in developing amore well-rounded education and bringingdiversity of thought to technology.

The dialogue session on India as theWorld’s New Education Superstar chairedby Sudhir Sharma, Chairman, MitkatAdvisory Services, India, addressed speakerswith key questions regarding the system,whether the core issue of Indian educationis in the quality of education or its accessi -bility. He also provoked thought in thedirection of the role of India in the AI/Techrevolution. To which Sushma Paul Berlia,President, Apeejay Stya & Svran Group,India, responded saying that from his pointof view, ‘Our institutions fail to provide themost important skills: creativity, team work,collaboration, innovation and problem sol -ving. Therefore, there is a need to reconsiderthe curriculum at all levels.’ She arguedthere is very little R&D spending in HigherEducation, ‘It is critical for Higher Educa -tion institutions in India to promote the

Lou Marinoff, Professor of Philosophy, The City College of New York,about the future of work

Mark Runacres, Co-Founder, The British EducationCentre. United Kingdom, with co-panellists

Avi Basu, CEO and Founder, Argolis, USA

David Martinez, CEO Spain, T V Sundram Iyengar & Sons

Neha Berlia, Member ofManagement Board, Apeejay Stya Group

Ramji Natarajan, Chairman,TMIC Film Tourism

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spirit of entrepreneurship.’ In his turn,Raghav Podar, Chairman, Podar Educa -tion, India, stated two fundamental issuesfrom his perspective, ‘We don’t attract thebest talents to teach due to low pay andthe negative perception of the professionand we are over-obsessed with marks.’Raghav Podar also argued, ‘There is adominant culture of testing and movingfrom school to college to a job which resultsin an acute skill gap.’ Satya Narayanan,Chairman, CL Educate, India, also notedthat Indian education ‘has recently seenfundamental changes in the Higher Edu -cation sector that has put education headsinto a tizzy.’Divya Lal, Director, SmartclassEducational, India, pointed out the need tofocus on teaching the right things to becom petitive in the market saying, ‘It even -tually boils down to different skill sets thatcandidates bring to the table. Indians areable to bring ‘jugaad’, but they’re definitelynot able to work with data.’ Continuing onthat thought, Krishan Khanna, Chair -man, iWatch, India, drew attention to adifferent solution saying, ‘There is a needto deregulate the education sector and makeefforts in vocational training (China hasmore than 0.5 million Skill DevelopmentCentres, whereas in India there are only15,000 ITIs.)’

Technological Breakthrough towardsGlobal LeadershipHaving strong engineering and IT India has achance of becoming a global leader given itprovides needed infrastructure for entre pre neur -ship to flourish, creating favorable conditionsfor joint ventures and driving R&D.

The plenary session on Leadership in theDisrupted World chaired by RaphaelMinder, Correspondent, New York Times,Spain, focused on multiple topics rangingfrom international policies and politics totechnology being the disruptor in today’sworld. Frank G.Wisner, former UnderSecretary of State, USA, focused on howthe world is undergoing a period of funda -men tal transition. He mentioned that thetransformation was mainly being driven by

Raghav Podar, Chairman, Podar Education

Krishan Khanna, Chairman, i Watch

Raphael Minder, Correspondent, New York Times, with panellists during the opening plenary

21

four factors: a shift in the global strategicorder, an emergence of new constellationsand new power arrangements betweenstates, a growing importance of multilate ralsolutions and massive economic changesthat are being driven by globalization. Healso remarked that it would be wrong notto hold on to what worked previously.

Neena Gill, Member of the EuropeanParliament, said, ‘The 4th industrial revolu -tion means that by 2030 two out of every

ten jobs will be replaced by robots,’ andthis is something the governments and thesociety need to be prepared for. She alsofocused on China’s rise to prominence andIndia’s role as a balancing power in thatcon text. Borja González del Regueral,Vice Dean of IE School of Human Sciencesand Technology, Spain, remarked that tech -nology is only an enabler and humanityshould always remember that we are theones building the technology and weshould not position ourselves as the weakerside when compared to technology. He alsosaid, ‘We need to be open about both thegood and bad consequences of technologyand we need to be able to articulate themfor everyone,’ as ‘technology changes veryrapidly but humans don’t, therefore, wemust find solutions that are sustainable.’Prakash Hinduja, Chairman Europe,Hinduja Group highlighted how mediacould play a role here in making sureeveryone understands and is prepared forthis upcoming shift.

The world is undergoing a period offundamental transition. Still, it wouldbe wrong not to hold on to what workedpreviously.Frank G. Wisner, former Under Secretary of State,USA

The 4th industrial revolution meansthat by 2030 two out of every ten jobswill be replaced by robots.Neena Gill, Member of the European Parliament

A debate at the Horasis India Meeting

Neena Gill, Member of the European Parliament

Sudipta Kumar Sen, Member of the Board,MetricStream

Sunil Nihal Duggal, Chief Executive Officer, Nihal Group Enterprises

22

In the session on Envisioning India’sDigital Economy, discussion focused onhow India’s massive population combinedwith India’s digital expertise presented anopportunity unlike any other. ‘By 2022,India is set to generate $1 trillion of DigitalEconomic Revenue,’ said Kevin Kalish,Head of IoT Europe, SAS Institute, Spain.José Antonio Martínez, Founder andCEO, The Science of Digital, Spain, said,‘What happened in Europe in 200 years ishappening in developing countries in 30years.’ India’s Aadhar based data and mobiletelephony sector was also highlighted asopportunities at scale. Marina GraciaMarch, UPC Founders Lab, Founder,Spain, reported that ‘the amount of datathat 1.2 billion people can generate everyday is great for machine learning.’ She alsohighlighted how digital payments are nowpermeating to all levels of society. SprihaSrivastava, Deputy News Editor, CNBCInternational, UK, remarked how the

demonetization exercise has created fear interms of hoarding cash and how it has led toa shift towards mobile payment solutionsand systems and how that also ensuresmore of India’s economy moves from theunorganized and untaxed regime to anorganized and tax generating regime. This,Vijay Mehta, Chairman, Economic AffairsCommittee, PHD Chamber of Commerce,India, concluded, would increase the Govern -ment’s ability to tackle fiscal challenges.

Pieter Perrett, Professor, University ofApplied Sciences Northwestern Switzer -land, Switzerland, opened the session onRenewables and Cleantech by introducingthe increasing need in the world forrenewables. He focused on upcomingtechnology as a replacement for current

Technology is only an enabler andhumanity should always rememberthat we are the ones building thetechnology and we should not positionourselves as the weaker side whencompared to technology.Borja González del Regueral, Vice Dean of IE Schoolof Human Sciences and Technology, Spain

Pieter Perrett, Professor, University of Applied SciencesNorthwestern Switzerland, charing the panel on cleantech

Vanitha Datla, ManagingDirector, Elico HealthcareServices, India

Marina Gracia March, Founder, UPC Founders Lab, SpainSession chair Spriha Srivastava, Deputy News Editor,CNBC International, United Kingdom

Kevin Kalish, Head of IoT Europe, SAS Institute, Spain

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tech while emphasizing the harmful effectsof fossil fuels. Dweep Chanana, Partner,Anchor Markets, Switzerland, drew atten -tion to the low differentiation of renewablesand increasing efficiency and technologyadoption. Sergey Demin, Chairman,Rosatom Asia, Russia, continued by saying,‘Technology holds the key to nuclear energy,it is becoming more and more financiallyviable. India’s 3-stage nuclear technologyis the ladder to future supremacy in atomicenergy.’Dalip Dua, Managing Director,Krishna Hydro Projects, India, shared that‘the key challenges of Indian hydro-electricplants are in land acquisition, politicalunrest and boundary issues.’ Gour Saraff,Founder, Solar Global Service, Spain,stated that ‘efficiency is the key to future ofre new ables.’ ‘Improvement in efficiency

provides benefit to renewables and solarenergy becomes more competitive,’ con -clu ded Srinivas Madduri, Professor,Center for Bioengineering and Regenera -tive Medicine, Switzerland.

IoT as a phenomenon is expected to lead tomassive opportunities and innovation; thiswas the gist of the dialogue session discus -sion on the Internet of Things phenomenonchaired by Jayesh Prakash, ManagingPartners, Jungle Ventures, Singapore.Technology will lead to more skills, morejobs and will require more investments andpolicy changes to be able to navigate theprivacy implications. Krishna Kumar,CEO, CropIn Technologies, a Bengalurubased Agricultural Technology firm,mentioned how his startup was leading togreater efficiency in the farming sector, lessuse of pesticides and improved production.While this shift to automation would leadto a decrease in intensive labor, he remainedpositive that employment will not suffer dueto IoT and automation. Murad Nathani,CEO, Sepio Products, India, highlightedother areas in which IoT could be a gamechanger. ‘Theft tracking, track and trace,inventory visibility, tackling counter -feiting; IoT will help solve these issues,’ and‘FMCG and Pharmaceuticals are massiveopportunities for IoT in India, especially

Dalip Dua, Managing Director, Krishna Hydro Projects Pallavi Ashish Korgaonkar, Chief Executive Officer,Korgaonkar Group, India

Dweep Chanana, Partner, Anchor Markets, Switzerland Sergey Demin, Chairman, Rosatom Asia, Russia Gour Saraff, Founder, Solar Global Service, Spain

24

to counter fake products,’ according toMurad Nathani. One of the challenges thatIoT companies such as his faced was thatIndia consumers tend to be very valueconscious. Stacy Kenworthy, CEO,HellaStorm, USA, remarked that currentIoT solutions were more focused on costreduction and improvement in efficiencythan on increasing revenues and as thetechnology and products mature he hopedthat IoT industry would shift in thatdirection. He expressed strong optimismwhen he mentioned in closing that, ‘IoT isgoing to be a very slow start primarilybecause of the value focus and cost focus ofIndian consumers but it is going to finishstrong.’ Parag Amin, Chief Mentor andFounding Director, iCreate, USA, alsobelieved, ‘India has to be a startup itself intrying to solve the problems it faces’.

Opening the dialogue session on NurturingEntrepreneurship, Vishal Chordia,Minister of State, State of Maharashtra,stressed the important role of entre pre -

neur ship for the Indian economy saying,‘Entrepreneurship should be developed ina similar way to how cricket has evolved inIndia.’ Further conversation led by JohnB. Kidd, Research Fellow, Aston BusinessSchool, UK, agreed that entrepreneurshipis the need of the country today as it is amajor source of employment generation.Yatindra R. Sharma, Managing Direc tor,KHS India, India, said, ‘Certain institu tionscreated an entrepreneurial environment inBangalore, but now other cities are gearingup to promote entrepreneurship as well.Cities such as Ahemdabad are gaining in thepharma sector. Pune manufacturing sectorhas already gained a lot of traction.Sriprembadur is gaining a lot of traction incontract manufacturing. Examples includethe Khadi and Village industries where

Entrepreneurship should be developedin a similar way to how cricket hasevolved in India.Vishal Chordia, Minister of State, State of Maharashtra, India

Vishal Chordia, Minister of State, State of Maharashtra, speaking about entrepreneurship in the rural context

Vijay Mehta, Chairman,Economic Affairs Committee,PHD Chamber of Commerce

Srinivas Madduri, Professor, Center for Bioengineering and Regenerative Medicine, Switzerland

Stacy Kenworthy, CEO, HellaStorm, USA John B. Kidd, Research Fellow, Aston BusinessSchool, chairing a panel

25

cooperative industry is benefitting allstake holders (even illiterate).’ ShoummoK. Acharaya, CEO, eTrans Solutions,India, remarked, ‘Entrepreneurship in thelast 25-30 years has been blocked by thewealth generation. Society worldwide needsentrepreneurship to generate employ ment.’Raghav Kanoria, Founder, NeolapBusiness Ventures, India, noted positivechanges over the past few years, ‘Before, theprocess of documentation was very slowon the Government’s side but now it is alot faster. Many foundations are focused onpromoting entrepreneurship in India. Theinvestor scenario has changed a lot in thepast few years. Now the investors aremore open.’

The dialogue session on Envisioning andBuilding Smart Cities led by JustinHuggler, Author and Journalist, Germany,highlighted the importance of this develop -ment for the Indian economy. Ebba Lund,Chief Operating Officer, InternationalAssociation of Science Parks, Spain, said,‘connecting to the knowledge base and allinnovation players is key in the design of thesmart cities.’ Alfonso Vegara, President,Fundacion Metropoli, Spain, stressed that‘for sustainable urbanization we don’t onlyneed to focus on infrastructure and tech -no logy, but also on talent attraction andgetting all innovation stakeholders aboard tobenefit from the network effect and know -ledge sharing.’The panel was challenged bymany in the audience who expressedskepticism, as India is known to have otherimportant issues it needs to tackle such as,the lack of infrastructure, pure water,pollution and sanitary issues before evenconsidering investing in building smartcities. ‘When we talk about a smart city,the first thing which comes to mind is acity equipped with IoT devices,’ saidIgnacio Pérez Díaz, Member of theBoard, La Zagaleta Group, Spain, agreeingwith talent and knowledge sharing to leve -rage the technology and development ofinfrastructure. Patricia Zurita, CEO,BirdLife International, UK, pointed out,

Plenary ‘Ensuring Inclusive Growth’

Justin Huggler, Author and Journalist, Germany, on smart cities Reeti Roy, Founder, Aglet Ink

Arjun Kalyanpur, CEO and Chief Radiologist,Teleradiology Solutions

Shailendra Goswami, Chairman and ManagingDirector, Pushkaraj Group

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‘automation will create new opportunitiesfor the people. We can create highways inthe sky, it’s only a matter of time beforeimplementing and intensive regulations arealready being drafted.’

The dialogue session on Meet India’sTechnology Unicorns concurred that Indiais very conducive for unicorns, with theprimary reasons being the young, talentedworkforce, the availability of capital andthe availability of a reasonable market.Session chair Balvinder Singh Powar,Professor, IE Business School, Spain,engaged speakers in a discussion on thereason why certain startups succeed whileothers fail. Speakers concluded that tocreate a successful business, it is crucial tosolve deep problems. A successful businesscannot be created by solving superficialproblems. Among other examples, theaudience addressed the truck drivers issue,PayTM, which revolutionized payments inIndia, as everyone from a roadside stall totoll booths accept PayTM for payment inIndia. Answering the question raised by theaudience on the startup bubble, speakersstated that the situation today is quite diffe -rent from what it was in the 2000s and themarket is more educated now, also referringto the positive side effects of the dot combubble burst; the cost of telecom came

down quickly because a lot of under seacable had been constructed. Summing up,Vineet Mohan Majgaonkar, Chair -man, Armstrong, India, said that Indiawould be a top three global economy.Sudipta Kumar Sen, Member of theBoard, MetricStream, India, commentedthat the physical infrastructure could bebetter to improve the quality of life. Ram Shanmugam, Chairman andFounder, AutonomIQ, USA, said that thefuture for India is very positive. Finally,Srikar Reddy, CEO, Sonata Software,India, concluded by stating that a lot ofIndia-specific problems along with manyyoung, dynamic problem solvers would leadto immense value creation in the future

Srikar Reddy, CEO, Sonata Software, India

Ram Shanmugam, Chairman and Founder, AutonomIQ, USAEbba Lund, Chief Operating Officer, International Association of Science Parks, Spain

Gunjan Sinha, Chairman, MetricStream, USA,about India’s transformation

Venkat Matoory, Strategic Board Advisor, CBA

27

Change of Model in InternationalCollaborations With the observed positive changes brought bythe change in government India has goodchanges of gaining a more leading role alsoglobally. While focusing on the internal affairsbecoming an even more active foreign investorcould give a stronger growth to the Indianeconomy.

During the India’s Politics session chairedby Harjiv Singh, Founder and CEO,Salwan Media, USA, the eminent paneliststalked about the current political scenarioof India and how it affects business in thecountry. After an engaging discussion onthe Assembly elections of 2019 followedby a pre-poll prediction, all the membersunanimously agreed that the current

scenario is dominated not by a politicalparty but by Narendra Modi in particular.The business community of India hopes tosee a BJP Government in the next term asthey believe it is easier to do business underthe BJP regime. ‘Politics in India today isbusiness as usual, and there is a stronganti-incumbent sentiment in general,’ saidDilip Cherian, Partner, Perfect Relations,India. ‘I accept the fact that anti-incumbencywill play a role in the 2019 elections. Also, itis difficult to meet all the targets. However,I believe the BJP will come back and forma quasi-unitary government,’ said ShaziaIlmi, BJP National spokesperson, India.‘Politics is the art of making things possible.It should be the art of making impossiblethings possible,’ stated Brajindar MohanSingh, Member of the Board, Anant RajLimited, India. While Roopen Roy,Founder and CEO, Sumantrana, India,argued, ‘Regardless of who wins in 2019,India’s growth is expected to be between7% and 8%, with the economy being from$ 2.5 trillion to $ 3.5 trillion.’ GovindSovale, President, Indo Swiss Center,Switzerland, shared the diaspora sentimentson Modi saying, ‘Generally, the diasporalikes the current Government because ithas decisive leadership compared to the

Shazia Ilmi, BJP National Spokesperson, about the state of Indian politics

Harjiv Singh, Founder and CEO, Salwan Media, USA, chairing a panel

Riya Sinha, Founder, Fuzia, USA –Whatstrategies can boost leadership of women

Dilip Cherian, Partner, Perfect Relations, India

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last 10 years, and the character of theleader ship. Corruption at the top has beenvirtually eliminated.’

Chaired by Saruhan Hatipoglu, CEO,BERI, USA, the discussion on India’s ForeignRelations was opened by highlighting theimpact of the Trump Government on India’srelationship. Robinder Sachdev, Presi -dent, Imagindia Institute, India, pointed outthe often explicit support being sought bythe USA from the Modi Government; suchas, for example, Trump wanted Modi toexplicitly support him on Twitter regardingthe Israel issue. Still, Rizwan Adatia,Chair man, COGEF, Mozambique high -lighted the differences stating, ‘For theUSA, terrorism is going down in priority.Trade has taken priority. For India, terroris more important than trade.’ In responseto that, Jesus Lall, Chairman, UniversalEducation Group, India, stated that Indianeeds to be strengthened from within andthat international relations cannot be seenin isolation, ‘While international relationsare being discussed, stability in India isabout internal stability as well. India canpose as the big boy, but the reality isdifferent. India needs to evaluate what ithas done internally. China has invested inbuilding a strong foundation and creating

skill centers. India isn’t prepared for thelarge and growing population that it has.’Sudhir Sharma, Chairman, MitkatAdvisory Services, India, expressed hisopinion that possibly 20, 30 or 40 yearsdown the line, India’s and China’s pathswill cross, ‘China has been a swift tigerwhereas India is an elephant – regardless,the paths will cross.’ Richard Smith-Bingham, Director, Global Risk Center,Marsh & McLennan Companies, UK, said,‘Brexit might give India more oppor tuni -ties as Great Britain and the UK will becourting India as a trade partner separately,’and raised the point of India’s long-termtechnological focus compared with China’slong-term focus and that as a percentage ofGDP, China spends 3.5 times more thanIndia on technology.

Saruhan Hatipoglu, Chief Executive Officer, BERI, USA, chairing the panel on India’s Foreign Relations

Sudhir Sharma, Chairman, Mitkat Advisory Services, sharing his points on geopolitics

Murad Nathani, Co-founder andCEO, Sepio Products

Rajnandan Patnaik, Dean, IMT Dubai, USA

Roopen Roy, Founder and CEO, Sumantrana Murat Seitnepesov, CEO, Integral Petroleum

29

‘When I look at the macro picture, 54% of1.4 billion people are under the age of 25.That’s a lot of hope and a tremendousopportunity,’ said Ron Somers, Founderand CEO, India First Group, USA. This wasthe general consensus among the openingplenary session on Leveraging India’s Op por -tunities chaired by Spriha Srivastava,Deputy News Editor, CNBC International,UK. Arun M. Kumar, Chairman andCEO, KPMG India, remarked, ‘I haven’tseen any market that has the opportunitythat I see in India today.’ Rakesh BhartiMittal, Vice Chairman, Bharti Enterprises,India, mentioned that according to everyset of projections, India’s economy willgrow from 7.3% to 7.4% this year, beingthe fastest growing developing economy.This is driven in particular by the funda -men tal changes brought about by the cur -

rent Government such as, its focus oncompetitive federalism being one of thepositives in the current Indian opportunity.With that, the speakers stressed that tradeagreements have to be in place to takeadvan tage of this opportunity. Risingprotectionism in the West notwith stan ding,India needs to pursue FTAs on a country bycountry basis and Indian states need to helpSMEs become more competitive, accordingto Arun Kumar. The panel noted that India’ssoftware expertise could also take advantageof the rising need to combat cybercrime,which would be a huge challenge in thefuture. Claude Beglé, President,SymbioSwiss, Switzerland, expressedoptimism about the economic future ofIndia saying, ‘China will soon become the#1 economy in the world. Compared toIndia, it has invested heavily abroad, forexample, in Africa. However, India has thecapability to compete with China becauseIndia has an international business men ta -lity, is the world leader in services, has awell developing private sector and is UScompatible.’

I haven’t seen any market that has theopportunity that I see in India today.Arun M. Kumar, Chairman and CEO, KPMG India, India

Claude Beglé, President, SymbioSwiss, Switzerland makes a point whilst Rakesh Bharti Mittal, Vice Chairman, Bharti Enterprises looks on

Robinder Sachdev, President, Imagindia Institute, making a point

Niraj Sharan, Chairman and CEO,Aura, USA

Srita Heide, Indo-EuropeanBusiness Advisor, Germany

Jayesh Parekh, Managing Partner, Jungle Ventures, Singapore,speaking about IoT

30

Opening the plenary session chaired byVivek Atray, Visiting Professor, ShooliniUniversity, India, attention was drawn tothe growing power of India in the world,‘Global spending of India is growingrapidly. In the 90’s we were rankednumber 16 in the world and today we arenumber 5 in the world. What is reallydriving India’s growth? Population! We arethe largest and youngest workforce in theworld!’ In his turn, Sunil Kant Munjal,Chairman, Hero Corporate Services, India,stated, ‘One of our basic needs is to rampup our education of young people,’ furtherstressing, ‘our biggest challenges are also ourbiggest opportunities.’ Soumitra Dutta,Professor, Cornell SC Johnson College ofBusiness, USA, continued reinforcing theneed for India to focus on digitalizing itseconomy, for which he argued strongleadership is key since, ‘India is very proudof its IT industry, however, it is not inleadership positions in this area globally.’At the same time, Neil Stevenson, Mana -ging Director, International Integra tedReporting Council, UK, suggested that itis also equally important to take a ‘longterm perspective on investment and nothave short-term thinking when growing inIndia. For business it is also important tofocus on building trust. And SDGs playsignificant role here.’ Rajive Kaul, Chair -man, Nicco Group, India agreed that India

does need to focus on the innovative end inits growth, building skills and competitiveadvantage on value added products andservices.

The India and World Economic Outlookplenary discussion chaired by MichaelStopford, Managing Director, OxfordAnalytica, UK, centered around the risingtrade wars and the implication these havefor the world economy in general and Indiain particular. Ratul Puri, Chairman,Hindustan Power, India, said, ‘We are infor a world that is more protectionist.

One of our basic needs is to ramp upour education of young people.Sunil Kant Munjal, Chairman, Hero Corporate Services, India

Jayesh Parekh, Managing Partner, Jungle Ventures, Singapore,speaking about IoT

Philippe Reich, Chairman, Swiss-Indian Chamber of Commerce

Session chair Vivek Atray, Visiting Professor, Shoolini University with his panellists

31

That’s a reality that we need to accept.’Mary V Andringa, Chair of the Board,Vermeer Corporation, USA, said that busi -nesses have to adapt early and figure outwhat their contingency plans are to facethese new challenges. Focusing on India’srole and opportunity, the panel agreed thatIndia needs to increase the ease of doingbusiness in the country and small enter -prises need to be the focus to sustaineconomic growth. The steps taken by theIndia Government to pass the Insolvencyand Bankruptcy Code and how this ispositive for doing business and bringsgreater transparency was also highlightedas positive for India by Ratul Puri. MuratSeitnespesov, CEO, Integral Petroleum,Switzerland, also focused on the fact thatIndia can’t afford to wait and see whathappens in the trade wars with the US andshould be proactive in pursuing bilateral

agreements and relations with countriesand regions. He remarked, ‘The solutionfor trade wars could be India’s focus onthe Asian Markets and Europe,’ for tradeagreements. Ratul Puri also mentionedthat another structural challenge that Indiafaces is in the demographic dividend andthis would be the biggest challenge thatIndia faces going forward. He went furtherand remarked, ‘The big picture in 10 yearsfrom now will be less about trade barriersthan about the competition between Indiaand China for resources and trade baskets.’

‘We are in the 28th year of liberalization.India’s progress has been slow, but steady.Let us discuss whether the trajectory thatIndia is on makes it the most attractivedestination for FDI.’With these words theChairman of the dialogue session on India’sNext Leap: Foreign Direct Investments,Philippe Reich, Chairman, Swiss-IndianChamber of Commerce, Switzerland,opened the conversation. Picking up from

Businesses have to adapt early andfigure out what their contingencyplans are to face the challenges of the new world order.Mary V Andringa, Chair of the Board,Vermeer Corporation, USA

Plenary on Leveraging India’s Opportunities

Joë�l Ruet, Chairman, TheBridgeTank, France

Soumitra Dutta, Professor ofManagement, Cornell University

32

there, Vijay Sambamurthi, Founder andManaging Partner, Lexygen, India, said, ‘It has been three decades of liberalization.The first decade, nothing was done. Thesecond decade was spent recovering fromthe damages of the first decade. The thirddecade is when we are now seeing thebenefits on FDI. While there are laws foreverything, nothing works.’And yet, ‘TheIndian market is showing tremendousgrowth in sectors like food, fashion andhousing,’ said Girish Bhagat, ManagingDirector, IndiaNivesh, India. However,according to Joël Ruet, Chairman,TheBridgeTank, France, ‘SMEs from foreigncountries find it difficult to enter the Indianmarket as their counterparts in India arecapital deficient. Also, the Indian market isvery complex.’ He also stressed, ‘ManySMEs die as they do not have the relevanttechnology. SMEs in India and SMEs inEurope need to be connected to allow this.It is key to find the right partners tosucceed in the Indian market.’ Lourdes S.Casanova, Professor, Cornell SC JohnsonCollege of Business, USA, noted, ‘WhileFDI is good for India, the concept ofindiscriminate FDI has been questioned,even by the USA. Both models need to beevaluated, FDI and OFDI (Outward FDI).’At the same time Krishnava Dutt, Mana -ging Partner, Argus Partners, India, ex pres -

sed an optimistic view, ‘I am an optimistand believe that a lot has changed for thebetter. FDI can be facilitated by improvingconflict resolution and enforceability of thelaw. Insolvency law is a game changer andwill generate a huge amount of internatio -nal interest in investments. The 185 millionof stressed assets are the biggest priority ofthe Government. The law will help addressthis problem.’

Participants in the session on Indian Firms’Global Expansion identified that SMEsdrive globalization of Indian firms, whilehighlighting the challenges to it such ascompliance and regulations, weak non-ITbrand and low investment in process. Chairof the panel, Akhil Bansal, Deputy CEO,KPMG India, India, opened with the state -ment, ‘India is growing continuously. 17%of global growth came from India and yet

Neil Stevenson, Managing Director, International Integrated Reporting Council, United Kingdom

Alvaro Villacorta, Incubation Program Director,Demium Startups

Shoummo K Acharya, CEO, eTrans Solutions

Vijay Sambamurthi, Founder and Managing Partner, LexygenKrishnava Dutt, Managing Partner, Argus Partners, India

Meeting co-chair Ratul Puri, Chairman, Hindustan Power

33

India is not in the top 20 global economies.India needs to invest outward, which wasinitiated by Birla’s and Tata’s. Earlier manu -facturing dominated the investment, butnow a third of investments is by IT com -pa nies.’Answering that, Nishith Arora,Chairman, MPS Limited, India, said, ‘Wefind inorganic route for global expansionmore manageable. We continue to acquirecompanies to expand globally.’ NirajSharan, Chairman and CEO, Aura, USA,expressed a different concern stating that‘India missed the revolution in manufactu -ring. It went straight from agri business toservices, which could lead to a sustainabilityissue.’ ‘65 million SMEs and less than 1%is connected to the global world. SMEsneed to step up.’ The speakers alsodiscussed models for expansion agreeing

that joint venture seems to be the rightmode to expand globally with a challengeof different corporate governance in firms,which causes friction between the two firms.

Sudhir Jalan, Chairman, Jalan Group,India, started the dialogue session on Makein India –The Road to Growth by askingwhether it would be the manufacturing orthe service sector that would enhance theroad to growth. Shailendra Goswani,Chairman and Managing Director, PushkarajGroup, India, stated that India is now, finally,focusing on manufacturing because of thecurrent Prime Minister, Narendra Modi.He further stated that the problem is withthe Indian firms as they are not clear abouttheir business mission. They do not knowwhether they want to operate locally orinternationally and if they do choose towork locally then their safety standards arevery low and their books are unclear. Hissuggestion was to make plants safer, focuson quality and intensive training for workersbecause that is what MNCs are looking forwhen they invest in India, therefore, Indiancompanies need to be attractive. HeinzDollberg, Executive Vice President, Allianz,Germany, added that with his big subsidiaryin Pune, India, he has experienced a slowlegal procedure, taking up to 7 years, thefinance sector also lacks speed and growth

Akhil Bansal, Deputy CEO, KPMG India, charing a panel on Indian firms’ global expansion

India and World Economic Outlook

Girish Bhagat, Managing Director, IndiaNivesh

Krista Knopper, Director,International Strategic Partner -ships, Delft University ofTechnology, The Netherlands

Pablo Piqueras, Vice President,Influencers International, Spain

Raghav Kanoria, Founder,Neoleap Business Ventures

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is not at its potential level. He suggestedthat simplifying the labor market andeasing the rules for entering markets couldhelp India catch up much faster with therest of the world. Arjun Kalyanpur,CEO and Chief Radiologist, TeleradiologySolutions, India, continued, ‘the ‘Make inIndia’ concept has been misunderstood bymany and it is nothing more than askingpeople to come to India. India is rich innatural resources and the demand is high,therefore, there is plenty of room forcompanies to improve their market share.Jayanta Poddar, Chairman and Mana gingDirector, Decorazzi Paints & Coatings,India, said, ‘Manufacturing is the motherof our industry, without it there is noservice sector,’ therefore, expanding themanu fac tu ring sector would not onlycreate 100 million jobs but would alsohelp in domestic consumption by makingthe non-consumers also our consumers.Viren Joshi, CEO, Sigma Electric Manu -facturing Corporation, India, giving aninsight into radiology said, ‘Supply is notmeeting demand, parts of India don’t havemuch needed facilities, such as, for example,24-hour operating hospitals.’ However,over time, companies like Sigma havehelped to improve radiology services.Technology has been developed that nowhelps produce high quality reports, online

training facilities and easier drug trials forpharmaceutical companies. MargaritaMayo, Professor of Leadership, IE Busi -ness School, Spain, brought to attention theimportance of leadership. She highlightedthat new times require new leadership styles.It is not possible to use the old businessmodel because over time people have losttheir trust in leaders hence there needs tobe a leadership revolution where thementality of people needs to be changedfrom within. Daniele Schiliro, Professor,University of Messina, Italy, highlighted,‘Real GDP growth of India has been betterthan any other. India simply needs to openthemselves to more international marketsby focusing on important sectors such as IT.’Financial inclusion was a key topic that wastouched on by the majority of participants

Heinz Dollberg, Executive Vice President (ret.), Allianz, Germany

Ignacio Pérez Di�az, Member of the Board, La Zagaleta Group, Spain

Margarita Mayo, Professor of Leadership, IE Business School, Spain

Daniele Schilirò�, Professor, University of Messina, Italy

Nishith Arora, Chairman, MPS Limited

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of the Rebooting Indian Finance dialoguesession chaired by José María FuentesRodríguez, Advisor, Joint Committee ofthe World Bank and the InternationalMonetary Fund, Spain, who spoke abouthow only talking about concepts likeBlockchain left 95% of Indians out of theconversation suggesting, ‘Changes in thefinancial market need to be compatible andinclude the majority. Additionally, financialinclusion not only includes access to banks,which has been done in India in the lastthree years, but also the knowledge of whatto do financially.’Another important topicdiscussed during the session was the needfor private sector banks to step up due tothe inability of public banks to makefurther contribution. Rishi Mehra, CEO,Wishfin, India, said, ‘The mobile phonehas become the bank branch, bringing in

financial inclusion.’ He added, ‘PSU bankshave problems, but they have a largeconsumer base. Indians are willing to pay,if they get the return in terms of service.’According to Oltmann Siemens, AdvisoryBoard Member, International FinanceForum, China, ‘The know-how is comingback to India (like it did in China) in theprivate banking sector [...] The privatesector needs to be more forward looking;the financial sector sees its role in a population that has not been served yet.Hopefully some new players come intothis segment; it is not State Banks that cando the job.’ Ashish Gianani, ManagingDirector, Atlantic Financial Group, Gibral -tar, focused on bonds and invest ment, ‘Non-performing loans in the public sector rightnow are said to be around $300 million.Foreign banking brands have left. There area lot of sovereign wealth funds that areinvesting, 7,000 of the 330,000 super richIndians have left the country. India has seena net outflow of $685 million from the FIImarket.’ Yogesh Singh, Partner, Trilegal,India, drew attention to a different area ofthe need to be reinforcing laws, ‘Controllingthe parallel economy has not been done asmuch as it should have. The complete modelof GST has not been implemented. We havemore than enough regulations in India, whatwe need is the reinforcement.’

Yogesh Singh, Partner, Trilegal, India, speaking about capital markets

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Carlos Marquerie Tamayo,Founder, Moonshot, Spain

Priya Prakash, Founder and ChiefExecutive Officer, HealthSetGo

Ashish Gianani, Managing Director, Atlantic Financial Group, Gibraltar

Rishi Mehra, Chief Executive Officer,Wishfin

Viren Joshi, CEO, Sigma Electric Manufacturing Corporation

The Flipkart-Walmart deal was arguablythe only big success the Indian startupscene has had so far. The lack of startupsuccesses in India has been a factor in themuted growth in the VC industry in India.That was the major takeaway from thedialogue session on Boosting Innovationthrough Venture Capital led by AmitBagaria, Co-founder and CEO, MyVoteToday, India. The discussion started aroundthe fact that while the Indian growth story,the intellectual capacity for innovation andthe enthusiasm for entrepreneurship havebeen remarkably high in India, the realityhas not lived up to the hype. One of the keyissues identified was the lack of successes.‘It is important for investors to have suc -cesses to be able to fund the next wave ofstartups,’ said Martin Haemmig, VisitingProfessor, Renmin University, China. Thiswas a sentiment echoed by Igor Tasic,CEO and Founder, Startup Europe Week,Spain. Part of the reason for the lack ofsuccesses is the complicated tax and gover -nance policies. Startups from India prefer toincorporate in the US and Singapore wherethe tax laws are more straightforward andinvestor friendly. Another reason that wasidentified was that the VC industry in Indiais still maturing and sophisticated investorswho are investing based on investmentthemes and identifying megatrends are yet

to see successes. Indian corporations havealso been lacking in their participation inthe Corporate Venture Capital spacecompared to their global peers. ShantanuSurpure, Managing Partner, Sand HillCounsel, USA, also pointed out that India,given its diversity and multicultural andmultiflavored markets, would see tens ofthousands of companies in the $50 millionto $1000 million valuation space rather thanthe big unicorns that everyone is focusedon. He opined that unicorns are the wrongfocus for the venture capital space.Karanpal Singh, Managing Director,Hunch Ventures, India, ended on the notethat recycled entrepreneurs are the key tothe ecosystem expanding and scaling fromits current limitations and more successeswill lead to that end.

Oltmann Siemens, Advisory Board Member, International Finance Forum, China

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Nacho de Ramon, Co-founder and CEO, Sincrolab, Spain

Jose Maria Fuentes Rodriguez, Advisor, JointCommittee of the World Bank and the IMF

Sudhir Jalan, Chairman, Jalan Group

Chayan Shah, Managing Director, Premier’s Tea Limited

Leading the dialogue session on IndianBrands: Creating Awareness of a RichVariety, Dilip Piramal, Chairman, VIPIndustries, India, together with partici pants,addressed a number of questions on howIndian brands can become global. ChayanShah, Managing Director, Premier’s TeaLimited, India, stated, ‘Indian commoditieshave made their way into the internationalmarket. However, the popular Indianproduct brands aren’t commonly seen inEurope. Indian tangible products need toestablish themselves in the foreign market.’Ramesh Datla, Chairman and ManagingDirector, Elico, India, concluded, ‘Indianever conquered and has always been inwardlooking. We have excelled in IT as we are aknowledge-based society. We have thematerials and the production know-how,but adding value on many products by Indiais low’. Harald Einsmann, Member of the

Supervisory Board, Tesco, UK, disagreedsaying, ‘Ayurveda, yoga and math, theseare Indian things that have made a globalbrand. Bollywood films have been an ‘exportbrand’.’ Mr. Einsmann also highlighted that,‘India has focused on math based teaching.However, to become a stronger brand andhave more brands in the internationalmarket, marketing and advertising need tobe taught systematically.’ Suresh KumarKurapaty, Founder, Umbrella Aegis,India, agreed adding, ‘The product is theessence of a brand; all marketing andadvertising efforts need to be backed byproper research.’

Introducing the dialogue session onDelivering on Infrastructure chaired byGeoffrey Clements, Chairman, Common -wealth Infrastructure Partners, UnitedKingdom, he spoke on the importance of

Arvind Sonmale, CEO, Sustainable Agro-commercial Finance, India

Geoffrey Clements, Chairman, Commonwealth Infrastructure Partners, United Kingdom

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José Luis Có�rdoba, Managing Director, Andalucia Lab, Spain

Mario J. Moya, Managing Partner, Adastra Ventures, Spain Harald Einsmann, Member of the Supervisory Board, Tesco, UK

Ramesh Datla, Chairman and Managing Director, Elico

infrastructure today with impact on nearlyall aspects of economy. Vineet Agarwal,Managing Director, Transport Corporationof India, India, described how physicalinfrastructure like roads and railways havemade transport more cost effective. Healso showed how a lack of storage facilitiesnegatively impacts the agriculture sector.Asif Iqbal, President, Indian EconomicTrade Organization (IETO), India, focusedon the important role of information flow oninfrastructure, emphasizing the increa singspeed and efficiency of digital economy.Mario J. Moya, Managing Partner, AdastraVentures, Spain, stressed the significant roleof air traffic management and having a clearstrategy of efficient movement of goods andpeople. Sushil Premchand, ManagingDirector, PRS Services, Switzerland, spokeabout high school education and how a lackof infrastructure effects the educationalsector. He emphasized the need for develop -ment of digital infrastructure to educate largenumbers of people. Arvind Sonmale,CEO, Sustainable Agro-commercial Finance,India, gave a perspective from the financialside focusing on the importance of avoidingwaste and adoption of new techniques.Jasper Zimmermann emphasized trans -port efficiency linked with speed of fleet,digitalization, fuel economy and automation.

India and SpainWith existing economic and geo politicaldifferences India and Spain share significantsimilarities, which is fundamental for eco -nomic and business collaboration betweenthe countries, in particular pursuing techdevelop ment and innovation, said Franciscode la Torre, Mayor of Malaga, Spain,during the opening dinner. The symbiosisbetween Indian and Spanish economicdevelopment was further emphasized byRam Madhav, National General Secretary,Bharatiya Janata Party, India. ‘Spanish andIndian firms need to partner to forgeenhanced growth initiatives,’ he emphasized.

Solar energy, healthcare, smart cities, watermanagement, urban transport are just afew of the industries identified as potentialareas of collaboration and opportunityduring the dialogue session chaired byMark Sanderson, CEO, Malaga Open forBusiness, Spain, on how India and Spain canbuild collaboration. Amartya Ganguly,Innovation Associate, Marsi Bionics, Spain,

Spanish and Indian firms need topartner to forge enhanced growthinitiatives.Ram Madhav, National General Secretary,Bharatiya Janata Party, India

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Narender Surana, ManagingDirector, Surana Solar

Lourdes S. Casanova, Professor,Cornell SC Johnson College ofBusiness, USA

Jasper Zimmermann, Senior Associate, Centre for the Future, Germany

Suresh Kumar Kurapaty, Founder, Umbrella Aegis Asif Iqbal, President, Indian Economic Trade Organization (IETO), India

Vineet Agarwal, Managing Director, Transport Corporation of India

remarked, ‘The Indian Government hasspent only 1.9% of its GDP on healthcarecompared with 9% by Spain. This is an areawhere India and Spain can work together.’Geeti Bhagat, CEO, Bhagat Group, India,put forward the idea of pairing cities inIndia and Spain that could work together.Malaga, for instance has not paired withany Indian city in spite of being one of thelargest tech hubs in Spain and India being atechnology powerhouse. Barcelona, one ofthe leading cities when it comes to smarttechnologies, was mentioned as a modelthat India could emulate with its ambitiousplans for 100 smart cities. The panel alsoremarked how, in spite of all these oppor -tuni ties and similarities, India and Spainare not major trading partners. One of thechallenges identified in this forum was thevisa issues faced by Indian entrepreneurs and

businesses. Unlike the US which grants a10-year visa for business purposes, Spanishvisas for Indian businessmen are only forvery short periods. This was identified asan issue. Language barriers and traditionalfocus on Latin American markets by Spanishcompanies was also identified as anotherchallenge. Girish Bhagat, ManagingDirector, IndiaNivesh, India, remarked,‘India’s opportunity over the next fewyears will be ‘n’ times the opportunity ofthe total South American market’ andthere is a lot of potential for collaborationif some of these challenges are addressed.David Martínez, CEO, T.V. SundramIyengar & Sons, India, stressed the impor -tance of collaboration as ‘innovation iscalling for a deep relationship and one wayto do that is joint ventures.’ Nacho deRamón, Co-founder and CEO, Sincrolab,Spain, continued the thought saying, ‘Thereare a lot of collaborations possible in twoareas: artificial intelligence and healthcare,’also stating, ‘universities are very importantto create contact between engineers andbusinessmen,’ while, ‘incubators have to bea great player in putting together startupsfrom India and Spain.’ ‘It would be a greatidea to make an effort to connect theseincu bators and startups,’ added MiguelSolera Martin, Founder, ReUse2Learn,Spain.

Miguel Solera Martin, Founder, ReUse2Learn

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Ulrich Randoll, Chief ScientificOfficer, Dr. Randoll Institute,Germany

Michael Pedersen, Founder, M INC., Denmark

Geeti Bhagat, President, Bhagat Group Amartya Ganguly, Innovation Associate, Marsi Bionics, Spain

Vrinda Jatia, Vice President, Pudumjee Group

Chaired by Isabel Guggisberg, CEO,Atlantic Financial Group, Spain, the sessionabout Spain was started by saying, ‘Spain isone of those European countries thatattracts a lot of investment. It also fostersinnovation. In terms of sectors, real estatedrove the growth.’ Juan Carlos Delrieu,Director of Strategic Planning of SpanishBanking Association, responded that thebanking sector is very important for growthin Spain stressing the need for banks toinnovate, particularly in response to thegrowing fintech. Angela Alvarez, ViceChairman, Fair Value Capital (UK) Ltd, UK,predicted that ‘It will take around 4 to 5years for the competition to stabilize withbanking as dominant and fintech com ple -men ting the growth.’ ‘Regulating thebanking space is important to avoid futurefinancial crisis but over protectionism ofcustomers restricts its growth,’ addedAnna Longoni, Co-Founder, GlobalSuper Angels Club, Spain. At the sametime, Alicia García-Herrero, ChiefEconomist for Asia Pacific, Natixis, HongKong, drew the comparison with India

saying, ‘Spain is one of the few countries inEurope which skipped the middle incometrap, and so did India.’ Jacob Lopez,Founder and Chairman, Optima, Spain,highlighted that, ‘the growth of Spain,previously driven by LATAM, now seeksnew and extensive collaboration with Asia.’Jaime Malet, Chairman, U.S. Chamberof Commerce in Spain, Spain, pinpointedthat geopolitical risks are hard to predict,are interconnected with each other and cansignificantly impact societies and business.

The panel on Investing in Spain chaired byRafael Fuentes Candau, ManagingDirector, ICEX, Spain, started withacknowledging the importance of India asan investor in Spain, which is the 12th

largest economy. At the same time, India has

India and Spain share significantsimilarities, which is fundamental foreconomic and business collaborationbetween the countries.Francisco de la Torre, Mayor of Malaga, Spain

Angela Alvarez, Vice Chairman, Fair Value Capital (UK) Ltd,United Kingdom

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David Mark Dror, Founding Chairman,MicroInsurance Academy, India

Sameer Dua, Founder Director,Institute for Generative Leadership,India

Isabel Guggisberg, CEO, Atlantic Financial Group, chairing an update session on Spain

Juan Carlos Delrieu, Chief Economist, Spanish Banking Association, Spain

Rafael Fuentes Candau, Managing Director,ICEX, Spain

gone from investment receiver to investor.Speakers mentioned that there has been a35% growth in investments outside Indiain the last 15 years. ‘India is the thirdlargest investor in the UK and one of thelargest manufacturing employers in the UK,’reinforced Tony Aggarwal, ManagingDirector, Kinetic Cubed, United King dom.Julio Andrade, Director, CIFAL Malaga,Spain, said, ‘Spain has a rich culture andhigh quality of lifestyle and security, whichis conducive for investing while connectivitywith other countries is an issue, such as,limited direct flights to only one city inIndia.’ Kandarp Mehta, Professor, IESEBusiness School, Spain, continued, ‘Thereare two factors which could be conducivefor investment in a country: flexibility ofterms and ecosystem. Spain needs to build

that. It needs to go beyond pilot testingand be more ambitious.’ Elvira Saint-Gerons Herrera, Investment PomotionDirectorate, Agency of Innovation andDevelopment of Andalusia IDEA, Spain,mentioned language, connectivity andbureaucracy as key challenges to investingin Spain while recognizing that bothcountries have similar cultures and oppor -tunities to collaborate on IoT, mobiledevices or healthcare. Sixto Arias, Inventor,Capaball, Spain also discussed the fact thatSpain likes and accepts innovation but doesnot sufficiently promote entrepreneurs.

Kandarp Mehta, Professor, IESE Business School, Spain Elvira Saint-Gerons Herrera, Agency of Innovation andDevelopment of Andalusia

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Krishna Kumar, Founder and CEO,CropIn Technology Solutions

Sushil Premchand, Managing Director, PRS Services, Switzerland

Mukesh Aghi, President and CEO, US-India Strategic Partnership Forum, USA

Sixto Arias, Inventor, Capaball, Spain

OutlookThe closing plenary highlighted the re -commen dations and initiatives identifiedduring the meeting and how progress can bemade in the coming years. Shiv Khera,Founder, Qualified Learning Systems, USA,reasoned how the world can contribute toIndia’s next phase of economic transfor ma -tion. ‘Excellence in organizational deliveryand better branding will boost India’seconomic and social transformation,’ hesaid. Dinesh Dhamija, Chairman, CopperBeech Group, UK, suggested India was onthe edge of a large boost to its perfor mance – with the rationalization of inter-statetrading due to the GST with a consequen -tial increase in tax revenues leading toincreased spending on better infra struc tu res:a benefit all round.

Mukesh Aghi, President and CEO, US-India Strategic Partnership Forum, USA,noted that Prime Minister Modi hasenacted deep changes to the waygovernment works and smoothed itsbureaucratic processes. ‘More needs to bedone – but the sweeping changes have cutout much obfuscation. India now needs tofocus on integrity in everything it does,’said Gunjan Sinha, Chairman,MetricStream, USA.

India now needs to focus on integrityin everything it does.Gunjan Sinha, Chairman, MetricStream, USA

Closing plenary – Modelling India’s Transformation

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Anna Longoni, Co-Founder,Global Super Angels Club, Spain

David Mark Dror, FoundingChairman, MicroInsuranceAcademy, India

Patricia Zurita, CEO, BirdLifeInternational, United Kingdom

Tony Aggarwal, Managing Director, Kinetic Cubed, United Kingdom

Shiv Khera, Founder, Qualified Learning Systems,USA, during the closing plenary

Julio Andrade, Director, CIFAL Malaga, Spain

Over 300 leaders from across the worldcame together in Malaga, Spain to attendthe 10th Horasis India meeting held on 24-25 June 2018. Co-hosted by the City of Malaga, the Province of Malaga and theConfederation of Indian Industry (CII),the meeting explored Indian firms’ rise to global eminence, while debating on theways to develop India’s economy rapidly andsustainably. KPMG in India was proud tobe associated with the event as a StrategicPartner.

Under the watchful eyes of the world, Indiais rapidly ascending in the global economy.Backed by a stable political regime, rapidlygrowing middle-class population andgovernment’s open door policy towardsforeign investment, the country is well onits way to becoming one of the world’slargest and fastest growing economies. Today,we are witnessing a new India – one that isrich with opportunities.

The Indian economy has largely enjoyedhealthy growth rates over the last few years,primarily driven by domestic consump tion.Further, Indian businesses have emerged asone of the major sources of Foreign DirectInvestment (FDI) in many countries aroundthe world.

Overall, outbound investments from Indiahave undergone a considerable change notonly in terms of magnitude, but also interms of geographical spread and gradually,sectoral composition. Rapid domesticeconomic growth has provided a solidfoundation for companies seeking toglobalize themselves, delivering strongbalance sheets and easy access to capital.

As an extension of these efforts, a numberof Indian companies have established globaland regional leadership positions in indus -tries such as information technology, e-commerce, pharmaceuticals, automo tive,consumer goods, telecommunications andinfrastructure to name a few.

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Celebrating the spirit of India – HonouringBusiness Leaders of the year

The award winners, with the presenters from KPMG and Horasis

During the two-day session, the leadersdeliberated on the India story, expressingstrong faith in its growth trajectory. Thecountry has embarked on a series of dis rup -tive, yet developmental policies that arecontinuing to transform the ways of doingbusiness. Significant efforts driven by policiesand initiatives such as clean-up of thebanking and financial system, Insolvency andBankruptcy Code, digitisation and digitalgovernance, Pradhan Mantri Jan DhanYojana for financial inclusion are likely to propel the country on an accelerateddevelopment pace.

Today, the FDI policy in India is widelyreckoned to be amongst one of the mostliberal policies in emerging economies.FDI up to 100 per cent is allowed underthe auto matic route in several sectors andactivities.

To create opportunities in the domesticsector, the Government of India continuesto invest in the key pillars of Indian economyby driving its flagship programmes such as‘Make in India’, ‘Swachh Bharat Abhiyan’,‘Smart Cities Mission’, ‘Pradhan MantriJan Dhan Yojna’. With the help of the ‘Makein India’ initiative, India is on the path to be -

coming a hub for high-tech manufacturing.Attracted by India’ s market size andincreasing purchasing power, many knownglobal manufacturing giants have either setup or are in the process of setting upmanufacturing plants in India.

An important feature of India’s rapid growthis its rising entrepreneurship spirit. Thishas resulted in not just innovation, but alsoin entrepreneurship being recognised as thedriving force of the market.

With these promising signs, India seems to have an exciting future , a future thatcould spell out game-changing oppor tuni -ties for the country’s economy, domesticbusines ses, multinational companies andthe government.

Being truly competitive on the global stagerequires an innovative brand of leader ship –one that blends with the global mindset. It is on these lines that Arun M. Kumar,Chairman and CEO, KPMG in India andAkhil Bansal, Deputy CEO, KPMG inIndia co-presented the India BusinessLeaders Award to two entrepreneurs whohave been building and leading successfulIndian firms.

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Parag Agarwal, Chairman, Janajal

Alfonso Vegara, President,Fundacion Metropoli, Spain

Delegates exchanging business cardsOpening dinner

Dilip G Piramal, Chairman and Mana -ging Director, VIP Industries LimitedHorasis Indian Business Leader of theYear – Entrepreneurship

Mr. Piramal’ s career as an industrialist inhis own right began with his acquisition ofVIP Industries Ltd. VIP Luggage, whichhad a modest beginning, has today gone onto become one of the most famous Indianconsumer brands.

He is involved in various professional andsocial fora and was the President of the IMCChamber of Commerce and Industry in theyear 2015-2016.

He is the former President of the Organi -za tion of Plastic Processors of India, theAll India Plastic Manufacturers Association(AIPMA) and the Rotary Club of BombayMid-Town.

He takes active interest in social andphilanthropic activities and is involved withthe Piramal Education Trust in his ancestralhometown Bagar, in the state of Rajasthan.

In 1987, Mr. Piramal sponsored theestablish ment of the Piramal Gallery, oneof India’s first exhibition halls solely dedi -ca ted to photography, at the prestigiousNational Centre for Performing Arts inMumbai. He has also restored the PiramalHaveli in Bagar, which is now a heritagehotel in the traditional architectural form.

Arun M. Kumar, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, KPMG India, introducing the award winners

Reception at the Automobile Museum Dilip Piramal, Chairman, VIP Industries, receiving the award as Indian Business Leader of the Year

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Salil Singhal, Chairman Emeritus, PIIndustries; Non-executive Chairman,Secure Meters Ltd., and Wolkem India Ltd. Horasis Indian Business Leader of theYear – Business Transformation

Mr. Singhal took over the business on thepassing away of his father at the young ageof 59. He believes in pursuing things with aclear vision, focus, and strong value system.

He brings a strong marketing and businessdevelopment focus to the companies, makingthem not only international in outlook, butalso strong in R&D and innovation. Everycompany of the group is known to be atthe forefront of technology, and enjoysexcellent reputation for its high standardsof ethics, and for fair and transparent busi -ness prac ti ces. Transformational changeshave been made by Mr. Singhal in all thethree businesses to keep them growing,profitable, and in leadership position.

He has been a recipient of the various awardssuch as the Best CEO for 2014 and 2015 inthe mid-sized chemical industry segmentby Business Today, Agriculture LeadershipAward 2014 for Life Time Achievements at7th International Agriculture Summit 2014and Global Corporate Leader of the Year in2011 by Power Brands.

Mr. Singhal was a member of the ExecutiveCommittee of the Federation of IndianChamber of Commerce and Industry(FICCI) and the Chairman of FICCI’sEnvironment Committee for five years.

Presently, he is Chairman of CII NationalCouncil on Agriculture. He has been amem ber of CII’s National Council sinceeight years. He is also an active member ofCII’s National Economic Council, and theTask Force on Corporate Governance andEthics.

Salil Singhal, Chairman-Emeritus, PI Industries – Indian Business Leader of the Year

A boardroom dialogue session Panellists gathering prior to the closing plenary

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Reflections at the Horasis India Meeting

Divya Lal, Director, Smartclass Educational

Guillermo Rodriguez, Director, Casa de la India, introducing the artists

Marimar Lavedam Director, Qatar Airways

Malaga – host city of the 2018 Horasis India Meeting

The evening was framed by Rasa Duende, a performance where Flamenco Music is in dialogue with Indian Performing Arts

Panellists meet prior to their panel

Update Plenary – Leadership in a Disrupted World

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Closing dinner at the Malaga Automobile Museum Participants share a light moment

Delegates gather for the sightseeing tour

Beaches in front of the Hotel

How to get involved

Horasis meetings are supported by selected partner companies that contribute their expertise and resources to Horasis by setting the agenda of its meetings. Our partners share with us the belief that the future can only be inspired through joint efforts within a visions community.

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Please contact Horasis for further information.

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Horasis: The Global Visions CommunityBurgstrasse 8CH-8280 KreuzlingenSwitzerland

phone +41 79 305 3110fax +41 71 686 50 59

www.horasis.org