'We have a long, long way to go': Venu Srinivasan on what India must do to win global manufacturing

India has every reason to be confident about its progress, but it still has a "long, long way to go" to match global manufacturing benchmarks, Venu Srinivasan, Chairman Emeritus of TVS Motor Company, said on Monday. Srinivasan is also a Board Member of Tata Sons.

Speaking at an Indian Foundation for Quality Management symposium, Srinivasan said India must raise its standards to match and exceed those set by countries such as Korea, China and Japan if it wants to secure a larger share of global manufacturing and products and services.

"Today, India has every reason to be confident that we can progress. There are many ways we can see it in our daily lives, in companies that have achieved international standards of quality, productivity," he said.

"However, we have a long, long way to go because we have benchmarks in the world from Korea, China, Japan that we have to meet and exceed if we want a fair share of global manufacturing and products and services to come to India."

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From Made in India to designed in India

Srinivasan said Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision of Viksit Bharat by 2047 cannot be achieved by relying only on cost competitiveness.

"Our prime minister gave us a vision of Viksit Bharat by 2047, and this cannot be built only on cost. This has to come from innovation, product design, and therefore being a company that is not just made in India, but designed and made by India," he said.

He said India’s bigger challenge was to build global trust in the quality of its products. "And most importantly, we have to make India synonymous with the word quality," Srinivasan said.

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'Indian product' must mean trusted product'

Srinivasan traced the association between countries and quality, saying Britain had established that reputation historically, followed by Germany, Japan, Korea and China.

"You go back in history, it was British that had quality. Germans actually came afterwards, and Germans stood for quality. Came Japan, Korea, China, and India has to very soon get on that bandwagon where you can buy an Indian product because it's trusted product," he said.

"This is the most important challenge for us," he added.

Srinivasan said the recognition he received from the International Academy for Quality was particularly meaningful because of his focus on quality throughout his career.

"I thank the International Academy for Quality for giving me this special honor. For me, it is very humbling because I've spent my entire career much more on quality than actually on business growth," he said.

"And business growth has been a result of our perseverance with quality processes. And therefore, it's especially fulfilling."