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Mumbai: Leading management Guru Prof. C. K. Prahlad, visited the Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies (NMIMS) recently to lay out his vision for India@75.

The event was organized by NMIMS in partnership with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and Yi.

Prof. Prahlad, while addressing faculty members and students of NMIMS and other distinguished academicians, corporate executives and members of CII and Yi, emphasized on acquiring Economic Strength, Technological Vitality and Moral Leadership of the country.

He said that, "India has a potential to lead the world in 2022 with its predicted largest pool of manpower consisting of 200 million college graduates and 500 million trained and skilled workforce. It could be home for at least 30 of the Fortune 100 companies of the world and generate over 10% of the world trade, by nurturing a vibrant renaissance of world-class contemporary art, science, research and education could have at least 10 Nobel Prize Winners. This is possible in next fifteen years provided leaders focus on this goal as a priority."

He emphasized that this position is possible only when India works on all three fronts- economic growth, technology development & moral leadership.

He said that, "As a country, India must have high and shared aspirations like it had in 1929 when the leaders of the then Congress party declared their ambition as Poorna Swaraj. Since then, India has never had a national aspiration which every Indian could share."

Prof. Prahlad, while speaking about his vision, also shared the key drivers of the developmental context for India to achieve the above goal in next 15 years.

"They relate not to abject poverty but income inequality, changing life styles, urbanization and emergence of universal aspirations, a dramatic change in price-performance relationships, economic development and ecological crisis and finally the role of governance and the rule of law."

Elaborating these key areas, he said that India has reduced abject poverty dramatically during last decade. However, a more difficult problem will emerge in its place.

"An important consequence of rapid economic development and globalization of the economy are the lags and asymmetries in the benefit results. Some sections of society will benefit and some will lag behind. These asymmetries will create multiple new divides in society – divides between educated and the uneducated, the urban and rural populations, between regions of the country as well as between ethnic groups. As a consequence, income inequality will emerge as a source of social tensions", he added.

"When people come to the cities, their aspirations change dramatically. They look at the rich as a benchmark. Their income may not change as a rapidly as their aspirations change. Therefore, it is the lag between increasing aspirations and incomes that can fulfill those aspirations can lead to a significant increase in social unrest", Prof. Prahlad highlighted.

"With the changing life styles of poor class and emergence as consumers has altered the Price-Performance envelop dramatically. This increasing capacity to create life style equality can provide antidote to increasing income inequality. This trend is likely to be further supported by the changing nature of high technology markets around the world."

"The rate of the cost/unit of functionality is changing in high technology implies that the poor can afford products and services incorporating the latest technology. The consequence of this rise in affordability is going to create explosive growth in consumption. This huge market opportunity will also have significant implications to the environment and the demands it will put on it."

"The current development models for energy, water, packaging, waste per capita are inappropriate and we have to develop fundamentally new ideas. We have to find better use of resources and support new innovations in this area for uninterrupted inclusive growth with ecological sensitivity."

Talking about Focus on Governance, Prof. Prahlad explained the relationship between country’s human development index and the quality of governance, he said that a nation does not get rich first and then become less corrupt.

"A nation becomes less corrupt before it gets rich. The explicit, quantifiable price we are paying for corruption and the neglect of human resources in the country is staggering and should be the focus of national debate."

Prof. C K Prahlad picked eight faculty members from NMIMS as his vision ambassadors, who will create a multiplier effect oh his vision, create excitement and a movement amongst people in the state.

The theme proposed especially for the youth is Play For the event, here they will be motivated to play matches against corruption, creating a greener city etc. The vision ambassadors will play an "aspirational role" and facilitate India’s transformation to a global leader by 2022.

While speaking to faculty members, he spoke about emerging issues in India and the need for research.



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