Prof. Ravi Ramamurti Previews Northeastern’s India Summit on India’s Global Manufacturing Future

Welcome to Indian Indian News. Our guest today is Professor Ravi Ramamurthy at Northeastern University. So, Ravi, welcome to our show and thank you very much for your time. Thank you. It's a pleasure to be here. Ravi, let us start with your upcoming event, if you can just talk about that. I know you have an amazing lineup of speakers there. What is going to happen? What is the topic and who are some of the speakers? Sure. You know, we do at my Centre for Emerging Markets, we do an annual India summit and this is the fifth of these summits and we have a different theme for every summit. This year's summit is going to be on the question, can India become a global manufacturing hub? As you know, India has been aspiring to increase its manufacturing capacity. The world is looking for an alternative to China, and India is the most obvious alternative, but it's a challenge to take advantage of that opportunity. So, we wanted to explore this issue by talking to policymakers and CEOs of important Indian companies. And so that is what we have in our lineup. We have the Consul General of India in Boston co-organising this event with us, so he will be there. Plus, we are going to start with Amitabh Kant, who in many ways is one of the initiators of the Make in India programme. And then we will look at a number of different companies, for instance, Ashok Leyland, who is the President and CEO, will be talking to us, followed by the head of Tata Group in North America to describe how Tata is involved in a range of manufacturing initiatives, including some very exciting new initiatives in semiconductors and batteries and so on. Then we will have speakers from the electronics industry, which is, as you know, with the iPhone being assembled in India, we're seeing an uptick in exports of electronics products from India. And then maybe textiles, and then beyond that to agro-industry. And also we're going to have a session with a former ambassador who knows China very well to explore how the India-China nexus is going to develop as India tries to build its manufacturing base. And we have a few other things. So it's going to be an exciting day with a lot of rich discussions. Maybe if you can also talk about when is the event and from what time to what time and how people can attend. Yeah. So the event will start, the doors will open at nine o'clock on Monday, October 5th, just a few days from now. And the program will run till 4.30. And we are providing some breakfast and some lunch for all the attendees. They should go to the Center for Emerging Markets at Northeastern University. Google that. You will see a link to events at the center, and there's an opportunity to register. Now, we already have a very large number of registrations, but we are still open to more registrations, but unlimited registrations possible for anyone who wants to attend online. Is there any fee to attend it? All our events have been free of charge and they have been made possible by the gift that we've got from Vivek and Vandana Sharma to create an India initiative at the Center for Emerging Markets. So my question is, how do you fund this free, these type of seminars there? Yeah, we have raised money, philanthropy mainly. We did raise some money initially through government grants. But when I created the Center for Emerging Markets at Northeastern almost 20 years ago, the idea was to bring the attention of these important countries where 85% of the world's population lives to the university community, because I felt there was not sufficient discussion about the issues and opportunities in these markets. Now, in the last few years, we've been fortunate to get a gift, as I said, from Vivek and Vandana Sharma to support India initiatives. And as part of that, we organize an annual summit like the one that I just described. We also have every semester an India lecture series, as part of which we have brought some very prominent CEOs and policymakers to speak on campus. And then we get also contributions from other donors and from alumni and friends of the Center, which helps us with all of the other activities that go on in focus on other issues in other parts of the world. And how long Vivek and Vandana Sharma Foundation have been helping you guys? So in 2021, we got a gift from Vivek Sharma and Vandana Sharma to establish the India Initiative at the Center for Emerging Markets. And we have been using that support over the years, the last few years, to organize seminars and lectures, and even other initiatives to help students from India or students who are interested in India to get more deeply engaged with India. So Ravi, you went to St. Stephen's there in Delhi, Indian Institute of Management at Ahmedabad. And what brought you to US and when, and how did you get interested in global business? Yeah, I came after I got my MBA at Ahmedabad. I worked for a few years in the government, and then in a large state-owned enterprise, Bharat Heavy Electricals. And then I thought I should get a PhD, because somehow in my family, there was a feeling that you had not finished your education unless you went all the way to get a PhD. My father had a PhD, and a few of my brothers had a PhD. So it was like a knee-jerk reaction to come to the US. I came to Harvard Business School in 1977 and got my doctorate by 1981. And then I joined Northeastern with the intention of going back to India. But like many others, I found it was hard for me to make a transition into the Indian academia at that time. So I ended up staying here. But having decided to stay here, I said I'm going to devote my energies and my time to studying problems that were important to countries like India. And so even though I'm a professor of international business very broadly, my own research has focused on the developing countries over the years. What are some of the developing countries which really come to your mind, which you think that they have a huge potential, but they have not really exploited that potential? Well, I mean, China is one country that I would say has exploited almost fully its potential. Almost all other countries still have headroom for doing even better. I think India has room to do even better. It has done very well and taken advantage of globalization quite well, but has a lot more headroom for growth. The countries in Africa are now starting to realise their full promise. I think the coming decades, we will see a surge in the growth and the level of development in Africa. Central America and South America are generally more prosperous than countries in Africa or even India, but they have been stuck, unable to continue to grow. So they are looking for ways to sort of de-bottleneck their economy so they can grow even faster. So there is a lot of room, if you consider the fact that per capita income in India today is maybe $3,000 and it is maybe $75,000 or $80,000 in the US. So even if you make adjustments for real purchasing power, there is still a lot of room for growth in these countries, which is why they account for two-thirds or more of the world's GDP growth, which is why countries like the US and companies in the US have all become very interested in these markets in ways that they were not interested 30, 40 years ago. So we hope everyone will attend or online or in person this summit on Monday, October 5th, on India as a manufacturing base for the rest of the world. On manufacturing depends jobs, on manufacturing depends India's exports and foreign exchange earnings, and on manufacturing depends India's national security in many ways, because you need to build the technological depth and capabilities in today's world. So there is a lot riding on this and we hope to have a fruitful conversation about this very important topic. Ravi, thank you so much.