Every time you hear about the accolades and milestones that India or for that matter, Indians achieve, social media swells with pride, bragging messages, congratulatory notes, chest thumping, tricolor flying and similar. Happened yesterday when India became the 4th country to set a foot (not human foot) on the moon; India going a step further and stepped on the South Pole or the dark side of the moon, a feat unparalleled even among the success stories.
India to the Business Schools around the world offers a case study of uniqueness. No other country can claim its honors on both sides of the scoreboards. Home to 1.4 billion people, about a fifth of the world’s populi, largest youth with more than 60% under 35, middle class more than total population of the next most populated country USA, all these great storylines and on the other side, 25% still under poverty lines, poor infrastructure (which is improving), congested metros, bureaucracy still slowing growth down. If Oxford dictionary would allow an additional synonym for the word Paradox, I would definitely add India as that entry in the lexicon.
What got me thinking on this aspect was the events of the last few days and added to my resolve for penning this was the fact that this “third world country” has landed on the moon, a feat emulated only by three other countries on the planet Earth and none of them who have held the moniker “third world economy”. Some of the giants of World economy such as UK, France, Germany, Canada, Japan haven’t checked that box yet. US and Russia have been thinking space since last 60 odd years. India’s Chandrayaan 3 became the first in the process to land on the unconquered side of the moon, the dark side, or the south pole as it is called. India had attempted this feat in 2019 but had fallen at the final frontier when couple of kms was what separated their Chandrayaan 2 from the lunar surface. Think about the research and the efforts of ISRO, India came out triumphant four years later and had a smooth soft landing on the moon. Number of critics tried to dissuade India on not spending the money on their space program and India not just achieved the unthinkable but romped home in style with the cost efficiencies that would put the best money managers to shame.
India has been amongst the oldest civilizations of this planet. Indus Valley Civilization has been around, and Hinduism is possibly the world’s oldest religion and India is the birthplace of Hinduism alongwith some of the world’s other older religions. Indian mythological tales have enthralled the world over. There have been folklores of Indians being adept in mathematics right from those days and the world math has benefited from the advancements and maybe this affinity of Indians towards Math has helped them master the world of computer science and technology which we all know is built on the fundamentals of math and physics.
Having said that, Independent India had taken birth in 1947 and is only 76 years young after being ruled by anyone and everyone in this world – be it the Afghan invaders, Mughals, Portuguese, French, British who ruled the longest; they all have taken a lot from Indian resources but contributed to India’s already rich heritage and of Mughals left their imprint, Portuguese and French had rather focused areas where you can feel their influence, but the widest one came from the British who wouldn’t have ever realized that Indians will take their language as their own and add their own “tadka” to truly popularize the lingo; likewise tea that British brought to India got baptized as chai and forms an important aspect of most Indian kitchen and has rather strong feature in the daily routine of an Indian.
Cricket was the sport that Indians picked up from British and if the game has seen any monumental growth, there is no doubt in saying India’s ascend in the sports had contributed to the manyfold exponential surge in the coffers of world cricket. The game wouldn’t have seen the current growth had India not been at the center of the universe. However, the focus here is on the paradox that India is, and how it beautifully balances its inherent eastern heritage and imbibes the influence of the west and blends it to create something that is highly Indian and unique. Cricket and Bollywood that borrows its name from Hollywood in Bombay (now Mumbai) are India’s biggest uniting factors.
Chandrayaan 3 landing day dwarfed the other two – Cricket and Bollywood like no other and Indians globally and even the world was watching with bated breath as that “third world country” had an indigenous product created on a near shoestring budget for a project of this magnitude, so much so that some of the Hollywood movies had much larger budgets for fictional story telling. This moon landing was the culmination of the resilience and research and learnings from the failure only 4 years ago and even India was laughed at by some of the world’s superior countries who thought India was venturing into an area which could be an expensive proposition for a country like India who possibly had more tactical problems at home to solve than the conquest of the moon. This was an event which had couple of billion eyeballs glued to their preferred medium to watch the magic unfold.
What unraveled as a part of Chandrayaan landing is India still is among the elite of world’s STEM (science technology, engineering, and math) leaders and add world’s business language English fluency to its repertoire and hence Indians have the secret sauce to succeed. Indians have succeeded everywhere they have gone and have only augmented the region and hence they are among the preferred guest workers and immigrants in various countries, US, Canada, UK, Australia included. Indian origin techies have over the past few years claiming the apex positions at IT and even non-IT global conglomerates and are becoming strongly ingrained in the global strategy. There have been countless success stories of Indians at the helm and right now, even both World Bank and IMF, where Indians were among major borrowers a decade or so back are governed by the Indian heads. Not just, India has paid back its outstanding and boasts of strong reserves.
Current century is being touted as the century of the Indians and though I feel century is a long time, I am more willing to say next decade could well belong to the plaudits of India and Indians and they will continue to add more stars to their kitty. Let us not get ahead of ourselves and proclaim too soon; instead win the smaller battles and let the cumulative count. Indians are primed for the take-off that can catapult them into the next orbit. Indians have always been great in the STEM arena and have had absolutely brilliant individual success stories; however, things are starting to move along as now the individual stories are making way for collective ones and are now firing in unison. India is seeing growth in all quarters and the young generation is ready to go head-on against the world’s best to claim their crown, as evidenced by the success of India in Chess World Cup where 4 out of 8 quarterfinalists were from India and eventual runners-up who was a 18 year old but already a battle tested veteran and not a rookie. Three of those quarter finalists were hovering around the age of 20 which augurs well for the world chess and recent success in shooting wrestling, field hockey, even soccer apart from cricket and we have a sports epic brewing.
Indians recently tasted success at Oscars this year and again, the individual achievements have been there always in the field of performing arts and there have been some brilliant performers, collectively and especially for the sample size that it provides, always was left wondering. Indian geniuses have Collaborations between Indian artists, and the rest of the globe is on upswing and better fusion is being doled out on daily basis; fusion is increasing which also means confusion is decreasing and the common audience is the winner as they experience the best of both worlds.
India has been founder/inventor/pioneer of yoga and ayurveda and now the entire world has been marketing yoga as their own. The world has started celebrating International Yoga Day and high number of world’s human force have started dabbling in the alternate medicine and curing and better health provided a la ayurveda. Indian grandma’s stories and remedies which were one of the world’s well-kept secrets are falling out of the closet and greater lot is experiencing the gamut of those offerings. Math and IT have always been their strong suite and world is seeing lot of proliferation in services built on these foundational elements.
Why all of sudden this renewed interest in India and everything Indian, one may ask? Few reasons. India offers a middle class of whopping 400 million people almost the population of the United States (maybe even more), has more billionaires other than any country not named United States or China, world’s top two economies. Indians have always been world travelers and thus well read and very brand aware, even brand conscious. They have the means to splurge on the right things and what the global giants have realized that Indians would spend an arm and a leg as long as they are on the leading edge and do not fancy themselves as the world’s dumping ground. Inferior or discontinued model of even the greatest and most popular brands will be dead bolted by the rich aware Indians as number of these companies realized when they entered the Indian market. No other country can offer such well-educated market. Other reason is Indians have leapfrogged as the highest per capita in US, world’s greatest supplier and some of them even Indians at the helm.
One of the biggest drivers of Indian bandwagon is diaspora is at its high when it comes to expressing their Indianness. There were times when the diaspora did not fancy themselves as being called Indian but all that has changed in the last couple of decades and the social media has brought them closer. Indians abroad are rather proud of their parent’s achievements and are flaunting everything Indian. I have seen Indian families being cynosure of the eyes with their nuclear families and strong academic skills and no-nonsense blue-collar approach. Other nationalities have embraced Indians as they have seen them put the head down and do their work, are continuously adding value to their environment and are relatively low skilled on the crime index, which is always a great addition to have in your surroundings.
Chandrayaan success ensured what Indians are capable of, Chess gave a glimpse into the gen Z of India, CEOs of tech companies demonstrated that Indians mean business and know a thing or two about growing the business, Cricket, India’s favorite sport has earned its green card and can keep the Indians hooked to the sport, companies like Airbus and Boeing have got the first hand glimpse of what Indian market can offer and as President Biden said, their order created a million jobs in the United States, a feat not having any precedence, an Indian origin person made it to the White House as the Vice President (ok she doesn’t want to be associated) but there are two others vying for the top spot in the Oval office and one may sense the tide is definitely shifting. Would India deliver on its promise remains to be seen but going by the current trends, I wouldn’t think a sensible investor would bet against the Indian growth story. Yes, India offers the paradox and none bigger than the world’s richest home in very close proximity to the slums but that’s what India is, unity in diversity has always been their mantra and recognizing their incorrigible differences and maneuvering them in the right direction, has brought them the success. They are now presiding G20 and number of us didn’t see this as a possibility few years back. They were not easy entrant to that club. India has recently climbed up to fifth largest economy in the world and are on target to move couple of notches higher in next few years. India’s currency rupee is now accepted as a tender in 37 countries and UPI their payment system is omnipresent and have afforded common men (and women) the luxury of simplifying their business transactions.
Circles me back to the original question that the world wonders what are you, India? Are you a former third world economy banging the doors of world leaders and hobnobbing with the world’s elite or are you the world’s biggest market and the showcase to demonstrate the best products, are you the workforce that can rival China’s monopoly and build and create best in breed solutions. Think about number of jobs that Indian orderbook can create as seen in the airplanes and this could lead to some serious bipartisan or multi country transactions. Indians always have taken pride in pioneering and building knowledge portfolio and intellectual exchange can only attain higher heights with the increasing reach. I am bullish on this story and India seems primed to achieve glory. India’s penchant for success has the enchanting tone but we all know that the orchestra needs to fire in synchronous manner else train can get derailed. World is ready to eat out of India’s hands and exciting times lie ahead.
