Bullish on India growth story, top banker Chanda Kochhar has said the tide is turning for the country with a whole new wave of opportunities blowing in from all directions, including in the form of emergence of digital economy and the rising entrepreneurship.
Ms. Kochhar, MD and CEO of ICICI Bank, in her keynote address to the India Conference 2016 of the Harvard University over the weekend, said that the focus of Indian economy is also now broadening to manufacturing.
She said the growing adoption of new technological trends is giving rise to new consumer behaviour and new business models, including the banking sector as a whole and ICICI Bank in particular.
“New areas of manufacturing are emerging like in the defence and the railways. It is estimated that the next driver of employment in the economy will be the manufacturing sector, which is expected to generate around 90-100 million jobs in the next few years. FDI will also play a key role in this area,” she said.
Stating that several countries and MNCs have expressed their intention to invest in India, she said this was further supported by efforts at enhancing ease of doing business and the government’s commitment to support a non-adversarial tax regime.
On the role of women, she said the women contribute only 17 per cent to GDP in India against the global average of 37 per cent, but a transformational trend is happening with the rising role of women leading organisations in key sectors.
Giving example of the banking sector, Ms. Kochhar said the women are today heading banks constituting 30 per cent of banking system assets in India, while the new digital economy was also throwing up new opportunities for Indian women.
On what was stopping Indian economy from getting to the 9-10 per cent growth trajectory, she said there is a lot more to be done to achieve what has been envisaged and strengthen the growth process.
“Our institutional framework needs to be bolstered further. We have to implement laws like the proposed Bankruptcy Code and GST (Goods and Services Tax) which will create efficiencies and strongly support the business environment.
“We have to address impediments that stall implementation of projects and streamline the process to ensure smooth execution, going forward. We need to address the leverage levels among corporates to restart investment cycle,” Ms. Kochhar said.
