Anand Mahindra pitches for govt-Indian cos partnership for scale, innovation, global reach

New Delhi: Mahindra Group Chairman Anand Mahindra on Sunday pitched for a partnership between the government and Indian companies for scale, innovation, global reach to help domestic firms play their part in realising India’s ambition of becoming a global power.

He also sought support from the government for domestic industry such as extending the PLI scheme to more sectors, simplifying regulations for start-ups and innovators and help in increasing their competitiveness through steps such as lowering logistics costs.

Speaking at the 4th Annual Atal Bihari Vajpayee Lecture, Mahindra also called for India to increase spending on research and development, while acknowledging that the private sector is lagging when it comes to making investments due to a mindset of risk aversion and lowered

aspirations.

He emphasised forming a strong partnership between the government and business to capitalise on India’s inherent advantages to become a global leader and power. “I am advocating for a government partnership with Indian companies in three major areas — scale, innovation, and global reach.”

While Korea and Japan helped their companies to build scale through industrial policy and protectionism until their companies reached scale to go global, India did not choose that path, he added.

“I am glad we didn’t. But we do need nurturing and incentivisation for scale. Not through protectionism but support for a limited time horizon,” he said adding the productivity-linked incentive schemes are on the right path, providing a runway for businesses to foray into new sectors and industries.

Although some questions have been raised about the PLI scheme, Mahindra said learnings and tweaks are welcome and asserted the scheme “has given us the courage to build capacity”.

“I’d argue it’s a very powerful instrument of partnerships. Schemes can’t last forever and that’s a good thing but can we spread it wider? Can we spread the reach of PLI schemes to cover larger sections of industry?” he asked.

Seeking government support to tackle the root causes that affect India’s industry’s competitiveness, he said, “Our manufacturing costs are unnecessarily high, land costs, utility costs, logistics costs, all of these contribute to our lack of competitiveness.”