A case for making India `new millennium compliant’

Therefore, with progress, abuse of the environment and labour is inevitable. “So if we don’t look into it right now then someday we will be forced to.” In Pune to deliver a lecture on India’s role in the global economy at the Indian Institute of Marketing Management, he paints a fairly optimistic picture. An optimism that he picked up in the last few years, he says.

So why not go in for measures that will make the country “next millennium compliant” when it comes to doing business with the rest of the world. “The customer will reject your product. So why not go in for some hard measures right now than regret later,” is his argument.

Does that mean hitting the panic button. Not really says Seth as he comes up with his strategy. “Apply the laws to industries which will have minimal impact. The Information Technology (IT) industry for one.” That is the best way to circumvent the dark scenario that countries are painting in Seattle right now.

Also, keep improving quality of the product. It sells. Big time. “In the long run quality sells.” In the USA, Seth says, every company is hankering after an ISO 9000 certification. Once that philosophy is adopted then the Indian industry would not have to bother about competing.

So it can be done. But India’s greatest asset. “Its population.” Surprised? Not really says the professor from Atlanta. “You make the best managers and have the best brains. Target that at an export market and you are on the right track.”

Having worked for numerous industries the professor has a vast experience to pull on. “I told Motorola to invest in India,” he remembers. “They were hesitant but they came and put up shop in Bangalore.” Today, Seth says with a grin cracking up, the highest level 5 certificate (read Wow! in layman parlance) is at the India factory among their worldwide operations. Similarly most of the big players from the American industry like BelAir and Mackenzie boast of Indians on top.

So go ahead and root for environment and labour. They will pay in the long run. Seth brands the Indian industry as its greatest enemy. They are responsible for the bankruptcy that has hit the country. “They corrupted the system. They bribed everyone to get things done and today as the competition heats up they are running for cover.” Bribes are taken but there was always someone to offer it. The industry, he says, should plead guilty on that count.

“Make donations to politicians legal as in the USA,” he says. Why? Because then everybody will know which MP stands where. “Politicians need the money,”…anyway. So in the USA the tobacco lobby and the gun lobby and a host of others canvass for their respective senators and congressmen. It is definitely healthy says Seth.

But as economies shrink borders Seth paints a grimmer picture. China is the next threat. “India fairs poorly on their Greater China theory.” It was not Kargil that got the Americans to sing along with the Indians but the Chinese connection, Seth says. So as the militaries of countries like USA, Britain and France come closer to the Indians, it would also harbour a economic revitalisation. Otherwise, any measure to mend fences with China would only result in delaying a war that is inevitable, Seth believes.

So what went wrong in the past 50 years. “Non aligned movement.” Ideology and economics just fell out of bed on opposite sides, he says. “We isolated India and the country is yet to come in from the cold.” Israel, he says, could offer excellent strategic relations. Something that was unthinkable in today’s reality.

In the end, it is the magic potion of the available Indian talent and the market forces that will help India be top gun. “Make the big markets dependent on you and they will come running.”