India competitively better placed amid uncertain times, says Piramal Group chairman Ajay Piramal

From the COVID19 pandemic to the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the US-Iran war, climate change and additionally the impact of Artificial Intelligence, we are in the most uncertain times, according to Ajay Piramal, the chairman of Piramal Group. Yet he feels, India must see it as a glass half full and not half empty.

"Today we are competitively in a better place than most other countries. We are talking a lot about global trade and globalisation, now converting into national boundaries, I think, that's where we as a country have an advantage. We have a large domestic market," Piramal said on Thursday.

He was speaking on the launch of Indian Chamber of Commerce's launch of its centenary book.

The large youth population is India's other advantage at a time, a lot of the developed world is aging, Piramal noted.

However, he stressed that India must focus more on manufacturing, which would help in job creation for the semi-skilled population in the country.

"In the last 10-15 years, our shift was much more towards services But, services do not provide the employment for the semi-skilled for the lower skilled people. I think today we have to move towards manufacturing and in that again, can we do precision manufacturing, and can you do defence? These are big opportunities. You look at the exports of electronics from India which are not existing before, so there are so many such areas which are available," pointed Piramal.

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In the past when cars were first launched or when computers were introduced, there was a lot of fear of job losses, but actually jobs only increased, noted Piramal, who feels AI if run well can also be a force for good.

He gave the example of the financial services space where the company is present in. AI is helping the company find many customers, who earlier didn't have a credit record and can give them credit much faster and efficiently. today,

Today, the access to credit has gone up, which means that the smallest person, also gains in that," he said.

He admitted that there will be some jobs lost in some areas and that's why he sees the need to skill people.

"There will be some Display displacement of people working in certain areas. It's our responsibility to ensure that we can skill people there, to create newer opportunities for them to work," Piramal said.

Today, we see many of the new generation in business families running family offices and managing investments. But, he said that may not be enough and it was important to run businesses, which that ultimately would create more wealth.

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"It's businesses who create wealth, and then you can invest. So, I strongly feel about this that you should not have wealth management. It also makes you lazy gives you the wrong habits," stressed Piramal.

He also felt the need to bridge the economic divide (in terms of per capita income, GDP growth) between some of the states in eastern India, versus states in west and south, if India was to become a developed nation by 2047.