Scaling up innovation critical: M&M CEO

New Delhi: Scaling up innovation, more collaboration across businesses, larger firms, MSMEs and innovators are critical for India to become the core in the global supply chain instead of just being in the periphery, Mahindra & Mahindra Managing Director and CEO Anish Shah said on Friday.  

The country has got the best talent with innovations happening across universities and has strengths in manufacturing and it should not be just a “plus one” to China or Europe, he said, while speaking at the annual convention of industry body FICCI.

“You heard a lot about ‘China plus one’ and more recently ‘Europe plus one’. Why is it plus one? Why is India not at the core? Why are we on the periphery? What is missing?” he asked. Shah further said, “If you look at what we have today, we have got the best talent. We have got innovations that happen across our universities, across various different areas. We are the manufacturing strength now.

“We have a government that’s committed to driving change to get logistics better in India and a number of other things happening. So why is India plus one?” To go from “plus one to becoming India at the core”, Shah said, “Driving innovation at scale, I think it is critical to make that happen. Collaboration across businesses, across large firms and MSMEs, across innovators. This collaboration is going to make it happen.”

He said domestic groups such as Mahindra and Tata are competing and winning against global players in the domestic automotive sector, encouraging them to replicate it in the world market.

“In automobiles today we compete with all the global makers, except for some who have left India, where they couldn’t find India an attractive market or they could not serve the demand of consumers. Domestic manufacturers both Mahindra and Tata are not just competing but are winning,” Shah asserted.