Boston, Mar 13 (IANS): Where should India invest next to return to the heyday of high growth? Where should the private sector make its bets? And will increased participation in local markets or global markets become necessary tools for today's businesses to thrive?
These were the key questions before the India Conference, the largest student-run India-focussed conference in the US, organized by the students of Harvard University here over the weekend, according to the organisers.
Now in its tenth year, the two-day conference with the theme of "India vs. India--Local Strength or Global Growth?" looked at these critical issues facing India from healthcare innovation to relevance of social enterprises to role of tech sector.
A panel on the way forward for Indian women in business moderated by Shereen Bhan of CNBC India, heard Debjani Ghosh and Aruna Jayanthi highlight the critical tension between whether women require special treatment in the workplace or not in order to succeed given contemporary cultural challenges.
Other panels considered topics including emerging innovations in refrigerated transport with hopeful implications for the dairy industry, and the increasing need for a supportive investor network to catalyse India's incipient entrepreneurship landscape.
Ashish Singh, Chairman and Founder of Bain India, highlighted several sectorial trends, including the sustained importance of FDI in Retail, the "premiumisation" of the fast-moving-consumer-goods category amongst MNCs and local brands
He also suggested the diminishing ability of large conglomerates to successfully grow multiple core categories simultaneously.
UTV Motion Pictures CEO and Disney Studios MD Siddharth Roy Kapur, offered his optimistic outlook for evolving audience tastes in Indian entertainment, amongst the local market as well as NRI's.
As the controversial conference theme points out, there will never be one simple story for the colourful ecosystem of a complicated country like India, the organisers said pointing to the steadfast determination of the academics and professionals.
"India vs. India" is not a question of which story will triumph but of how Indians can create a path that allows the country to triumph, they said, suggesting the Harvard India Conference's answer, evidently, is an optimistic one.