T.V. Mohandas Pai, Co-Founder and Chairman, Aarin Capital, at TiECON 2023

Mysore/Mysuru: Industrialists, vision groups, start-ups and stakeholders of Mysuru must effectively lobby to build ‘Brand Mysuru’ and the brand value cannot be achieved or enhanced with just boardroom discussion or industry meetings. Things must see a change on the ground and for that the Government must be forced to act, said Chairman of Manipal Global Education Services and Co-Founder and Chairman, Aarin Capital T.V. Mohandas Pai.

He was delivering the Inaugural Keynote Address on the second day of the two-day TiECON Mysuru 2023 with theme ‘Business Scalability and Sustainability,’ organised by The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE), Mysuru Chapter, at Radisson Blu Plaza Hotel on M.G. Road in city this morning.

“The benefits of Brand Mysuru can only be realised if the industrial and entrepreneurial leadership of Mysuru force the political leadership to toe the line and bring more infrastructure, facilities and also provide a market to the local agriculture economy. Have a road map and force the political leadership to act,” he said.

Mohandas Pai made these comments answering the question on building Brand Mysuru raised by TiE Charter Member and former Chairman of the Confederation Indian Industry (CII), Mysuru Zone, Bhaskar Kalale.

“There are three sectors to the economy — Agriculture, Industry and Services. First, you must have a vision on where you want to be in 2030. Think of how to connect markets to the farmers so that they get better pricing for their products, secondly think of how industries can create more jobs and thirdly, plan how the service industries can make a difference to Mysuru, what are the infrastructural needs, tourism initiatives, healthcare infrastructure and think of making Mysuru as a National Education Centre,” Mohandas Pai said.

“Come out with an action plan and sit with the political leaders, your representatives in Vidhan Soudha and the Parliament and force the policy-makers to act. Let me tell you that no one in Vidhan Soudha cares for you. You do not exist for them as they will be busy in their own official rigamarole. You must lobby hard and exert pressure on them to act,” Pai said.

Earlier in his talk, Mohandas Pai, who was a member of Infosys’ Board of Directors and Head – Administration, Education and Research, Finance, Human Resources and Infosys Leadership Institute, said that constant human activity leads to increased specialisation, and increased specialisation leads to increased productivity and income.

GDP of India and China

For nearly 2000 years and until 1820, the combined GDP of India and China alone was more than half of the entire world. This prosperity endured through all the wars and frequent churn of empires in Asia, from the Ottoman Empire in the west, to Imperial China and Japan in the east. India saw waves of Asian forces, some coming for plunder and others staying to rule, before the British Empire was established in India, he noted.

“The British looted India of its wealth to build its empire. Dr. Utsa Patnaik of Columbia University estimates that in today’s money 45 trillion dollars was the value of loot. The British impoverished India by its loot. But now there is no need for India to seek any favours from any country. India is now a 3.15 trillion-dollar economy,” he said.

Pai also stated that the deprivation of Indian people over the last 75 years and not providing them basic facilities was the biggest problem in India but the Narendra Modi Government has taken care of providing a roof over the head to every Indian, water in the tap and money in the bank accounts. India’s GDP will go up to Rs. 273 lakh crore and 450 billion dollars in a year, he added.

Other speakers at the event included CEO of Harish Bijoor Consultants Harish Bijoor, Chairman of Karnataka Digital Economy Mission B.V. Naidu who spoke on Beyond Bengaluru, Founder Director of Safe Hands 24/7, and Founder and CEO rProcess Outsourcing Savitha Mallappa.

Transforming India into a knowledge-based economy

India’s Government launched the Digital India programme in July 2015 with the goal of transforming the country into a knowledge-based economy with strong digital capabilities. This was the beginning of the country’s digital revolution, said Mohandas Pai.

Sharing thoughts on India’s digital revolution, he said that India has set its agenda of Digital India very well, and being the 5th largest economy of the world, India has also become a global leader in the digital revolution.

“We must remember that 250 years ago the industrial revolution took place, it happened in Great Britain, the age of the missions arrived and that led to colonisation and impoverishment of India. From 2025, the digital revolution has sorted and India has become a global leader. What India has done today, no country in human history has been able to do,” he noted.

Highlighting the achievements of digital innovations, Pai said, “The biggest challenge that India has today is how does the Government reach the last person in the queue and India has done that through digital innovation.”

Pai shared some data and said, this year India will export 200 billion dollars of software, the largest export of software services by any country in the world. 60 percent of the global outsourcing comes to India.

Giving expert views on the startup ecosystem in India, Mohandas Pai said, “We will have 200 thousand startups by 2025 December and will probably have 250 unicorns and we can create around 1.5 trillion dollars of value and we can have around 35 lakh employees by then.”

The Economic Survey 2021-22 declared India as the third-largest startup ecosystem in the world, after the US and China. According to Pai, the startup has transformed the view of young people and a new generation of entrepreneurs is being created.