By Debra Donston-Miller
Optimism.
That’s the word that comes to mind again and again when listening to Shailender Kumar speak about India’s future. Kumar, Oracle India’s new managing director, sees many opportunities for the country and its people, fueled by a new government, a rising market, a reduction in the interest rate, a new tax model, and growth projected to outpace even China’s.
He’s not the only one: In its annual assessment of the Indian economy, the International Monetary Fund said, “The Indian economy is reviving, helped by positive policy actions that have improved confidence and by lower global oil prices.”
Morgan Stanley concurs. A recent article in the Economic Times reports Morgan Stanley’s forecast that India is in for a long period of higher sustainable growth and lower prices, due in part to an inflation rate that is expected to average below 5% this year. "We are more constructive on inflation outlook and we expect the retail price index to decelerate to 4.75% by this December against the consensus estimate of 5.8%,” said Chetan Ahya of Morgan Stanley. “We also expect growth momentum to pick up, but do not expect a rise in inflationary pressure."
Indeed, Kumar noted that a number of factors are coming together to boost India’s economy—and its outlook.
“There are many positive things happening, including a changing industry with the drive for entrepreneurship at its peak or big projects that the government is going to initiate,” he said. “That will really catapult the industry to the next level—initiatives like smart cities, for example.”
Improving Lives
At the heart of many of these initiatives is technology. The smart city model, for example, is a prime example of the ways in which technology is not only driving change but giving people the tools to improve their lives over time—not to mention enabling continued economic growth for the nation.
Smart cities are communities with a focus on identifying opportunities to achieve efficiencies through cross-agency infrastructure investments, collaboration, and intelligent service delivery. The United States will help in developing three of these cities in India, said Kumar: Allahabad, Ajmer, and Visakhapatnam. This was announced after talks between Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Barack Obama.
Smart cities, including those being developed in China, differ in that some are built from scratch while others are overlaid on pre-existing designs. But they all share certain characteristics, including digitization of infrastructure, harmonization of technologies, alignment of business and government approaches, and citizen participation.
“Some talk about a better transport management system, smart lighting, smart metering, or better health management,” said Kumar, who recently welcomed the Oracle community to Mumbai for Oracle CloudWorld. “All of these comprise facets for a smart city.”
Kumar noted that Allahabad, Ajmer, and Visakhapatnam are just the starting points. The government, he added, wants to develop 100 smart cities in the next 10 years, and is reaching out to companies like Oracle to learn “what would be the right thing” in terms of making this dream a reality.
Creating Real Optimism
Significant change, though, comes when people can not only do for themselves, but can also see themselves building a foundation for a successful future.
“That's how the real optimism gets created—when people start saying, ‘Yes, my business has started growing, and what I had been looking for is happening now,’" said Kumar.
Another push for growing the Indian economy—especially when it comes to manufacturing—is coming straight from the top, with Prime Minister Modi pushing a concept called “Make in India.”
It will take strategic use of technology to fully realize this vision, which opens up a huge opportunity for companies as the government and other authorities help guide individuals and organizations to build their businesses and plan for future growth.
“If you have that cutting edge in manufacturing, that cutting edge can come only from IT,” said Kumar. “We can help them in terms of supply chain, we can help them in terms of building up their distribution network, their retail network—that's what we see. And that's the reason we're excited about it. We have told our teams, ‘Let's go, and if we find that these kinds of companies are emerging, why don't we start working with them, and see to it that we're able to provide them the support they need today.’”
Technical Support
That support can come in many forms from many platforms, he added, from ERP and supply chain to human capital management.
“We’re looking to help manage these companies through the lifecycle,” said Kumar. “And, of course, once these firms have their production up and running, it’s all about customer experience, customer relationship management. From the application standpoint, it’s very, very good. But when they start growing, then technologies like analytics, integration, portals will become more and more pertinent. And behind all these we have our hardware, our infrastructure, the database, middleware, and more.”
Kumar sees the forest—with all of its global implications—but he knows that true and lasting change will come from also taking notice of the trees. In addition to working on big-picture initiatives such as the Goods and Services Tax (GST), designed to create an investment-friendly environment in India, Kumar noted the importance of working to raise the technical literacy of the nation’s citizens.
“If you're a new bank account holder, not only are you learning about the financial system, but you're learning to interact with technology in a way that perhaps you haven't had the opportunity to previously,” he said. “So this raises the technical literacy and opens up whole new markets for technical products. So it seems that the overall economic benefit for the country is very good.”
Shailender Kumar, Oracle India’s new managing director.
