How Can India Emerge as a Global Superpower? Straightforward Analysis.

My friends, India crossed China as the most populated country just recently.

About our population of 1.4 Billion people, we Indians have this mindset that our humongous population hinders the growth and development of India. Well, it is true to a certain extent, but I see it slightly different.

One of India's leading scientists once said that the advantage of having such a large population is that even if an infinitesimally small percentage of Indians are good scientists, it is still a larger number of scientists than most smaller countries with better education systems can boast of.

Hence, I believe that within our mammoth population lies dormant, but tremendous energy and potential for great development.  Instead of thinking to somehow control our population crisis, which is relatively much difficult to actually control, I think we must enhance our ways to 'manage' this society - that is, harnessing the power of India through better governance, top-class education, youth empowerment etc.

Take this example. In every olympics, China wraps up its campaign with 60+ gold medals, and a couple hundred medals in total. Why is it so? Boy just look at how many athletes it sends to the olympics! And not only that, just see how skillful and prodigious they all are. Moreover, they dominate in almost every sport.

Whenever anyone argues to me about overpopulation of India as its major problem - I immediately point out the example of China's growth and development. It is shocking to see China this advanced, considering most of its population lying in old-age stage. On the other hand, India must be among the countries with youngest population. See our Indian lads and ladies rocking the whole world - be it being the CEOs of multi-billion dollar companies or being the leaders of entire countries!

We can go on and on proving this simple fact that nothing really "hinders" our growth other than our own inner inabilities and weaknesses. Also, I will make it clear that even the government cannot be wholly blamed in this matter, as we ourselves are our own rulers. We must not count on anybody else. Each one of us must take up this initiative and contribute like heroes, soldiers.

--> The Changing Centre of Gravity of "Global"

Out of every 100 people in the world of the future, at least two-thirds will be in Asia, and most of them in India and China. One-third will be illiterate; perhaps five will have a college education, and about a quarter will be developed market consumers from Europe or America. Between now and 2025, 95 per cent of the increase in global population will be in emerging markets and their increase in consumption will be greater than that of the traditional top six developed markets.

The inescapable conclusion to be drawn from this is that the centre of gravity of what constitutes 'global' is changing, as is the picture of the typical 'global' consumer. So why should a global strategy that has worked in the past, work in the future too?

 Consumer India requires the creation of new solutions, rather than the transplanting of strategies from other markets. It requires companies to leverage their core competence, things that they are very good at doing, and apply it to new markets- to create winning 'made for India' solutions: new solutions for a new and different world.

From the book 'We are like that only' by Rama Bijapurkar, here are the three big factors to getting it right for the Indian market:-

1. Creating Blockbuster Relevance

- By defining business arenas in ways that make them relevant to the aspirations and problems of most Indians. For example, the heartbeat of the new India is about education, healthcare, productivity improvement, work saving, entertainment, income improvement, better management of assets, and so on. Waiting for electricity to reach villages is not the answer. Instead, the pressing need for lighting needs to be addressed by marrying LED, solar energy and nano- technology capabilities to create low-cost community lighting before electricity gets there.

2. Creating perceived value advantage

- From a vague perspective, it may seem that Indian market is not yet ripe enough to bosom big big Indian versions of Apple Inc., or any other out-of-the-world innovation tank.

The reality is that most of our consumers and customers may have modest incomes, but are not at all backward in their thinking and aspirations.

All in all, winning in the Indian market is not about finding ways to sqeeze or coax revenue and profitability from it, but by focusing on solving real-time problems, spotting and filling the gaps in the demand-supply chain of this society.

3. Getting the business economics right

- Most ideas never manifest into the society just because they weren't mathing in. Designing suitable economics behind our XYZ service is as important as inventing/finding solutions.

Conclusion

As an individual who aspires to make India a global superpower, do the first step of asking this right question :-

Don't ask 'When will this market be ready for my "global" strategy?', but "What is the right strategy to unlock the potential of this market?"

All the best comrade!

Thanks,

Daksh Parekh.