Stage set for India’s global success in multiple fields

You’ve had a long career and worn many hats, so please could you give a brief introduction about yourself?
I am Founder and Chairman of 5F World and GTT Data Solutions, Chairman of Honeywell Automation India Ltd. and the Lighthouse Communities Foundation and have been a successful business and social entrepreneur for 30 years.
I have had two stellar CEO tenures over 25 years taking APTECH and Zensar Technologies to global prominence and have been Chairman of NASSCOM, HBS Club of India and CII's IT Committee.
I currently serve on the Boards of Hinduja Global Solutions, Educate Girls and two SBI companies.

India aims to be a tech and economic superpower by 2047. You have been associated with various companies involved in EdTech, IT Services, finance etc along with Nasscom? Can you what is going for India to achieve that goal? What are the positives?
We have the fastest growing economy in the world, well developed digital infrastructure and the world's largest pool of technically trained manpower. We have strong Government leadership, a well-managed economy and a robust corporate sector. The stage is set for global success in multiple fields.

Industry-academia partnerships, skills and R&D are some of the things in which we are lagging. What more can be done to catch up with the world?
We need to substantially increase our investments in R&D which are currently at 0.7 percent of GDP to at least 2.5 percent and start developing products and platforms for global deployment.

We don’t have tech products that rule the world. What can the government and industry do to set that right?
Research and Innovation as joint responsibilities to build global IP and a product mindset for entrepreneurs and successful services firms.

What are your views on the disruptor GenAI and where does India stand with regard to that?
India is currently lagging the US and China in AI. MeitY has plans to invest ₹10K crores through the National AI mission in developing AI infrastructure for the economy with 10,000 GPUs procured and deployed. But like UPI we need democratised AI solutions to be built that can be marketed to the nation and the world.

You have been involved with India's IT scene for decades. What are some of the highs and lows you have seen in that period?
The high is that our IT services and Engineering companies have overcome all economic downturns and continued to grow and gain market share over four decades. The low is that our success with products has been limited.