CREATE MORE ENTREPRENEURS, MAKE INDIA INNOVATION CAPITAL

HARSH MARIWALA, Founder & Chairman of Marico takes pride in the fact that innovative business practices have powered the company’s growth. In an interview with BW Businessworld, he holds forth on innovation and other life lessons

- Suman K. Jha

IN ITS QUEST to become a $5 trillion economy, and then a high-income country, entrepreneurs and a national culture of innovation will play a key role. Marico Founder and Chairman, Harsh Mariwala, who swears by a culture of innovation, is convinced that entrepreneurs can be created – and “there are not necessarily only born-entrepreneurs”.

Mariwala is encouraged by a growing number of entrepreneurs coming from Tier-II and Tier-III centres, as also with the growing tribe of first-generation entrepreneurs. In India’s rapidly-expanding startup ecosystem, 49 per cent of startups come from Tier-II and Tier-III centres, according to government data of August 2022. On innovation index, too, India has moved up the ladder, and was at the 40th spot in the Global Innovation Index, 2022. “I found innovation as a way to succeed. I tried this early in my working life. Launches like Parachute and Saffola Masala oats were driven essentially by a philosophy of innovation,” says Mariwala.