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Journalism of Courage
The Anna movement is a testament to the strength of Indian democracy,a brand thats constantly improving, said Martin Sorrell,CEO WPP Plc,the worlds largest marketing communications firm that owns JWT,Ogilvy & Mather,Grey Worldwide,Mindshare,Maxus and Mediacom,among others.
Sorrell was the lead speaker at Express Adda,the first in a series of conversations with newsmakers,launched by The Express Group. Welcoming Sorrell,Editor-in-Chief of the group Shekhar Gupta said that the Adda will showcase an exchange of ideas and thoughts,more relevant today than ever.
Sharing the stage with Sorrell were Prasoon Joshi,lyricist and Chairman of McCaan Erickson and Uday Shankar,CEO of Star India.
Sorrell,who was one of the first ones to identify The India Story in the early years of economic reforms,said that the Indian market is one of the few he is most excited about. He said that besides the impressive economic growth rate,it was the potential of 1.2 billion people that inspired him.
The UK,where I come from,has a population of 60 million. The US has 300 million people. India has 1.2 billion people. There is no way you can dismiss the potential of these people, he said.
Asked by Joshi if he thought the next Apple Inc would come from India,Sorrell he said there was no reason why it would not. Joshi also asked Sorrell what he thought of the Anna movement. The general view is that it is good in the medium term. It reflects the strength of the democracy here. In the longer term,the effect will depend on what it yields, Sorrell replied.
He said that corruption was a global phenomenon and every country in the world was grappling with it. He said the movement or even the heightened perception of corruption in the country will not impact foreign investment as long as India maintained its high economic growth rate. Sorrell said Indias brand equity has consistently improved in the past few years.
We have an internal system to track brand equity of countries. And I can tell you Brand India,as judged by Indians and outsiders,has improved significantly over the years and it is constantly improving. Thats our assessment both internally and thats the feedback we get externally.
While comparing India and China,Sorrell said if he had $1 billion to invest,he will divide it equally between the two countries.
Indias growth story is mainly about its domestic consumption whereas China is about manufacturing and exports, he said. He said the changes in the two countries are profound both on the economic and the consumption front,and no big multinational can forgo the opportunity of investing in these markets.
Comparisons between India and China have become part of conversations these days. Sometimes they are not fair. Both India and China … have their own set of challenges,their own traditional wisdom to guide them. I dont think the two countries need any advice from outsiders on how to maintain their relationship, said Zhang Yan.
Developed countries are growing at one,one-and-a-half per cent or 2 per cent rate,whereas your country debates whether the growth this year will be 7 or 8 per cent or more. That says it all, Sorrell said.
Uday Shankar pointed out how his boss,News Corp Chairman Rupert Murdoch and Sorrell were both among the first investors in India and the two were reaping good dividends on their timely bets.
Among the guests who showed up at the Adda were: Chinese Ambassador to India Zhang Yan; Naresh Trehan with writer wife Madhu Trehan; Fab Indias Bim Bisell,Minister for Railways Dinesh Trivedi,Rajya Sabha MP NK Singh,MP Jay Panda with wife Jagi,designer Raghuvendra Rathore,VP communications Christian Dior India Kalyani Saha and Executive Director of Luxor Pooja Jain.
