Competitiveness Is The Key To Our Future

Uday Kotak on protectionism, Donald Trump, private capex, Indian fintechs, scams and scandals

- Gopika Gopakumar & Satish John

You also spoke about eliminating the current account deficit. What do you think should be done?

We need to make sure that each sector has the ability to compete in the world. Global consumer brands are used by consumers beyond their countries of origin or people from that country in the rest of the world. I would love to see one or more of Indian consumer brands having such a global presence. I think there are many Indian companies which have the ability to become global consumer brands. Something like Titan in jewellery has an opportunity. There could be many other examples. There are Indian two-wheelers.

Do you think Indian fintechs can do it?

In the UPI space, they could. I think we have made a mark there. But so far, the use of UPI outside India is still limited. In fact, the question you've got to ask is the reverse. In India, 95% of the (UPI) volume is with global brands. Walmart and Google.

On the scams and scandals that occurred, such as IL&FS and DHFL, do you think the aftermath is still affecting the government and regulators, making them overly cautious and risk-averse?

I am a believer that a zero accident policy is a high risk to growth. And it's across sectors. If you and I cross a road, we have a risk of an accident. Are we going to say we don't cross a road? I'm not talking about any particular sector. And India is big enough to absorb some of these shocks. If you want to minimize accidents, the way to do it is to have good traffic lights, and have a good monitoring system. And most importantly, if an accident happens, the response time to correct is the key. We cannot have an accident linger for long.

You have also spoken earlier about increased investment in defence. Just last year, the head of an Indian EPC (engineering, procurement and construction) company was lamenting that he built a shipyard, but the orders are not coming. Your take?