ICFAI conducts 9th N J Yasaswy Memorial Lecture virtually
The ninth N J Yasaswy Memorial Lecture on “India in the New World Order” was delivered by Prof. Jagdish Sheth, The Charles H. Kellstadt Professor of Marketing, The Goizueta Business School, Emory University, Atlanta, USA. The event was presided over by Dr. C Rangarajan, Chancellor of The ICFAI Foundation for Higher Education (IFHE), Hyderabad, former Governor of Reserve Bank of India and former Chairman, Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council. The event was conducted on 28th October 2020 virtually.
Prof. Sheth said “ The COVID-19 pandemic may turn out to be in many ways an acceleration of new triad power replacing the old triad power in economics, economy, military and maybe in politics also. The new world order will be dominated by the USA, China, and India. India has all the ingredients to be a superpower but needs the recipe. India has a big consumer market, a large-scale digital talent, a strong global diaspora, a growing soft power, strong military power, and most importantly a growing positive self-image. The recipe for India is to reposition itself from a restricted domestic economy (as the focus from a policy and market viewpoint) to becoming more and more globally integrated.”
Prof. Sheth further emphasized “India needs to embrace global standards, and global benchmarks for domestic products and services, become a global sourcing destination, become a global hub for technical talent, gain soft power through globally-admired brands, and speed up the digital infrastructure. India must invite foreign investments for global markets, provide huge economic incentives for innovation and entrepreneurship which is already being done with the new NEP 2020 and National Research Fund, but this requires a lot more attention. India must enhance human capital through digitization. Vocational/ technical training can significantly increase human capital value.”
Prof. Sheth concluded by saying that India has to transform from a low-tech economy to a high-tech one. That’s where India’s future is and despite the COVID-19 downturn right now India will come back in a significant way.
In his presidential address, Dr.C. Rangarajan said “India needs to get back to the high growth path through reforms that 1991 saw. Without being a strong economic power, it cannot become a strong political participant in this world.” While agreeing with many of the recommendations made by Prof Sheth, Dr. Rangarajan said “India needs a prudent financial system capable of supporting the growth momentum. There’s a need to raise investment ratio and ensure the financial system is prudent and capable of providing the wherewithal for the economy to grow.”
“We need to take the reform agenda forward; we need to apply the spirit of liberalization as much as possible to every area. The present state of the economy is not very convincing, we need to move faster and get the rate of growth as quickly as possible to 8 percent or 9 percent per annum in the coming years”, Dr. Rangarajan said.
Earlier, welcoming the audience, Dr. J Mahender Reddy, Vice-Chancellor, IFHE spoke about the contribution of Late Mr. N J Yasaswy, the founder of the ICFAI Group of educational institutions in promoting higher education in the private sector in India. He further, said Cases help students to understand the real world.
Mrs. Sobha Rani Yasaswy, Chair Person, ICFAI Society, Prof Vijaya Lakshmi, Registrar IFHE other dignitaries, students, and faculty attended the lecture in large numbers.
