R Seshasayee, in his first press conference after assuming the office of the president of CII, outlined four missions, on:
- Manufacturing Innovation.
- Knowledge & Skills Development.
- Inclusiveness; and
- Sustainability.
The CII president, while retaining the central theme of 'Competitiveness for Sustainable and Inclusive growth,' said that the key drivers of the theme will be the four missions with defined targets and timelines.
Outlining the Mission for Manufacturing Innovation, Seshasayee said that high rates of growth registered so far had been based on competitiveness triggered largely by cost arbitrage. India needs to reposition itself from a low cost manufacturer / service provider to a creative and innovative product developer, he said. India should aim for a growth trajectory engineered by value arbitrage through innovation.
The Mission for Manufacturing Innovation, chaired by Surinder Kapur, chairman & managing director, Sona Koyo Steering Systems Limited, will create 100 leader companies in Indian Industry with global processes on innovation and product development over 3 years.
CII would engage global process leaders and innovators such as Prof. Shiba in achieving this goal, Seshasayee said. For promotion of innovation and development of future technologies across the manufacturing sector, especially among the SMEs, CII president announced setting up of Innovation Cell in partnership with National Manufacturing Competitiveness Council.
Manufacturing Innovation would be complemented by a Mission on Knowledge & Skills Development, chaired by Ashok Soota, chairman & managing director, MindTree Consulting Private Limited, that would aim at leveraging e-learning \ technology for skills building in order to promote knowledge-led manufacturing and services industries.
The mission will also identify and bridge critical skills gap in partnership with institutions of higher learning. This would help improve the quality of education and thereby employability, he said. These initiatives would enhance the intellectual capital of the country to become a global leader in knowledge-based industries, he added.
Noting that the economy was getting increasingly externalised, as reflected in the growth in trade and net external capital flows, Seshasayee emphasized that there was an enormous headroom to scale-up.
"Through mentoring by Indian companies from the million-dollar club, we are targeting to create 100 new billion-dollar companies over three years," said the CII president.
In conjunction with the agenda for furthering globalisation of India Inc, Seshasayee announced a campaign on 'Brand India,' chaired by Nandan Nilekani, chief executive officer, president & managing director, Infosys Technologies Limited, to build brand salience for India in the next five years in partnership with India Brand Equity Foundation (IBEF).
The focus of this mission would be to position India as a globally competitive and sound investment destination, as well as a reliable partner to do business with. India's strength as a platform for R&D would also be highlighted.
Speaking on the importance of sustainability, Seshasayee said that if India and China were to grow at the current rates of growth, in less than two decades, both countries together will consume as much oil as the current world oil consumption and will need thrice as much water as the worldwide consumption today.
"There is no option but to trim our ecological footprint to stay within our bio capacity," Seshasayee mentioned. Towards this end, the CII president announced a Mission on Sustainable Growth, chaired by Jamshyd Godrej, chairman & managing director, Godrej & Boyce Manufacturing Company Limited, which will proactively develop a National Policy on Sustainability. "We will enroll 500 leader companies committed to triple bottomline approach in the next three years," he said.
Seshasayee also highlighted the importance of inducting breakthrough technologies to achieve the sustainability goals.
Posing the question on whether growth had led to equitable dispersion of income, the CII president emphasised the responsibility of industry to supplement government's efforts to foster inclusive growth. Commenting on the Herculean task set by the government under the aegis of the Bharat Nirman Programme, Seshasayee said that central to CII's response would be the rural business hubs-a partnership between CII and panchayats that aims to create rural employment and empowerment. The CII President unveiled a Mission on Inclusive Growth, chaired by Sunil Kant Munjal, managing director & chief executive officer, Hero Corporate Service Limited, that would extend growth to sectors such as dairy, livestock and fisheries, with the rural business hubs initiative enveloping them. Further, the mission would also promote enterprise development through technology inputs and IT linkages.
The CII president announced that he has constituted a Task Force on Affirmative Action, headed by J J Irani, Director, Tata Sons, to prepare an action plan that will focus on education, skills development, employability, entrepreneurship and social development. The action plan, to be ready in eight weeks, would be implemented by CII to focus on inclusiveness.
Announcing the initiation of an Integrity Campaign, to be championed by N R Narayana Murthy, chairman of the board & chief mentor, Infosys Technologies Limited, the CII president cited improving probity in public life and finding ways to combat corruption in key economic activities as the objectives, towards improving competitiveness of the country as a whole.
Earlier, at the press conference, the CII president said that the macroeconomic conditions were robust and the growth for the year 2006-07 was expected to be 8.3 percent. This is marginally higher than 2005-06. He said that the growth could have been much higher but for some downside risks expected during 2006-07.
These included a medium term hardening of interest rate due to higher inflationary expectations and increase in interest rates globally and hardening of oil prices, he added.
The CII president was of the view that industry and services would also grow at a marginally higher rate compared to 2005-06 as a result of higher investment during the last year, he said.
The CII president concluded that CII's aspirational growth rate in the medium term would be 10 per cent growth.
R Seshasayee (right) and Sunil Mittal, the new CII president and vice president, respectively, at a press conference in New Delhi on Thursday. Photograph: Ranjan Basu / Saab Pictures
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