NEW DELHI: India Inc must think outside the regime of incentives and subsidies and improve its competitiveness and productivity while ramping up R&D expenditure for being future-ready, CII President T V Narendran said on Wednesday.
Speaking at 'Being Future Ready Business Summit 2022', the CII President observed that a responsible and conscious industry must think beyond its own priorities to drive positive change for the nation.
He pointed out that the recalibration of global supply chains presents an opportunity for the industry to embed itself more firmly in the international arena and expand its global footprint.
"We must move away from a risk-averse culture to a mindset that proactively explores all markets and all sectors. The many new free trade agreements being signed with our key market partners open up immense opportunities for our international engagement and we must support and leverage these to the optimum," Narendran said.
He called upon the industry to shift the focus on building competitiveness through workforce skilling, innovation, quality and sustainability. "It is absolutely essential for the industry to ramp up R&D expenditure for being future-ready. The Indian industry's share in total R&D spend in India is 37 per cent, as against 80 per cent in South Korea and 77 per cent in China. Further, industry collaboration with academia and research institutions on R&D is critical," the CII President said.
CII President-Designate Sanjiv Bajaj spoke at length on how the industry must prepare for 'India@100', when the country completes a century of its Independence from British Rule in 2047, and said an important area that will define the future of the industry is its engagement with the needs of society and the community.
He said the digital revolution, including fintech, e-commerce, etc is creating immense opportunities for the Indian industry which would make it future-ready to cater to community needs, and all this will be an integral part of the India@100 agenda.
CII Vice President Pawan Munjal spoke on the issue of sustainability and the role of industry in reducing the carbon footprint. He said the industry has played a significant role in promoting renewable energy and energy efficiency.
"Immense opportunities are being created in new industries viz. green mobility, renewable energy, circular economy and green hydrogen. Electric vehicles are driven by new policies to improve efficiencies. Indian companies should take a strong position in assessing global markets," he added.