The Business of Inclusive Growth
VIEW EVENT DETAILSThursday, 21 September, 7:00 p.m.- 8:30 p.m.
“India is a hard place to live in,” Jawaharlal Nehru said at the first convocation of the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, in 1956. Over seven decades later, that still holds true: today, India is the largest populated country in the world, and its economy is rapidly growing, with a GDP over $3 trillion, but nearly twenty percent of its one billion live in poverty, and it ranks 131 of 188 countries in the Human Development Index. Within India, too, variations persist. As economist Ejaz Ghani notes, “economic mass is concentrated in the coastal leading regions, while poverty mass is concentrated in the lagging regions in the hinterlands.” With over half of our population of 1.4 billion under the age of thirty and most of them still engaged in the informal economy, how do we nudge these disparate realities to work towards more inclusive growth?
A recent study by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and McKinsey found that relying on ten private sector industries: agriculture; manufacturing; consumer tech; information technology; financial services; healthcare; infrastructure; water; energy and education could prove pivotal for India, adding to the size of industry; the number of people employed; the number of people in school; and access to capital. This is a big, worthy goal that admits to some difficult realities: India is still a hard place to live in, and from something as large as career and livelihoods, to something as fundamental as household tap water connections, the quality of social and economic life our population has access to remains variable and often low. Given this reality, how can the private sector play a role in navigating a more inclusive growth trajectory? Since India’s neoliberal reforms in 1991, the private sector has been as instrumental as the government in shaping the country’s progress – serving as the “major engine of growth and employment generation” in the country. Since the 1980s, the sector has contributed to more than 90% of employable jobs, and accounts for 24.7% of the country’s GDP. The McKinsey report estimates that with sustained effort the private sector can offer employment to over 600 million Indians by 2047 – making collective conversation and action critical as we approach a century of India’s independence.
Join us for a conversation that delves into re-imagining India at 100 and the role of the private sector in creating an inclusive economy. Can private capital and management engender sustainable livelihoods and economic inclusion for the largest ‘young’ population in the world? How can we ensure that people in rural and semi-urban India are meaningfully engaged in the country’s economy? Can sectors that are large and growing, like payments and fintech; manufacturing; education; and private-public partnerships spearhead frameworks for inclusive growth? To paraphrase famed poet Rahat Indori, how can we ensure that every Indian is entitled to India?
Our panelists are Hemant Sikka, president, farm equipment sector at Mahindra and Mahindra, Sajjid Chinoy, chief India economist, JP Morgan, Shinjini Kumar, co-founder, SALT - MySalt App and Priya Agrawal, founder-director, Antarang Foundation. The conversation will be chaired and moderated by Alok Kshirsagar, senior partner, McKinsey.
Hemant Sikka is the President of the Farm Equipment Sector (FES) and a Member of the Group Executive Board at Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. (M&M). Part of the well diversified Mahindra Group, Hemant has been President of Mahindra FES since April 2020, wherein he has global responsibility of Mahindra’s tractor and farm machinery business. Mahindra FES is the largest tractor company in the World by volume. Mahindra commands 40% Market Share in domestic tractor business in India. Apart from being market leader in India, FES has strong on ground presence and business in USA, Japan, Turkey and Finland and leads with iconic brands like Mahindra, Swaraj, Mitsubishi, Erkunt and Sampo in its portfolio. Hemant also oversees Mahindra Powerol, a leading player in Genset and Industrial Engines Business & Mahindra 2 Wheelers division including CLPL (Classic Legends Pvt. Ltd, associate company of Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd) which has flagship brands like Jawa, Yezdi and BSA. Under his leadership FES has also entered into Agri advisory, Agri Input, Rental of Farm Machines and Precision Farming sectors under Brand Krish-e with a vision to transform farming and enriching lives of farmers. Hemant also serves on the boards of several Mahindra Group companies in India and overseas. Hemant is the President of Tractor & Mechanization Association (TMA) of India. TMA is an industryled, non-profit, agriculture mechanization organization which plays a proactive role in the agricultural development of India. It works to create and sustain an environment conducive to the growth of the tractor and farm mechanization industry and addressing the needs of the farming community in India. TMA aims to transform the Indian Farm Mechanization industry into a self – reliant agricultural economy that is critical to a large and populous country like India. Before taking responsibility as President of FES, Hemant was President – Chief Purchase Officer of the Automotive & Farm Sector of Mahindra, managing a spend of Rs. 35,000 Cr while also leading Mahindra Powerol and spares business of Mahindra. He also worked as Head of Purchase for SsangYong Motors, South Korea, a group subsidiary of Mahindra, wherein he played a key role in the purchasing domain by building strong businessrelationships with Korean suppliers and lead the SsangYong purchase team in significantly reducingmaterial costs and driving sourcing synergies with Mahindra. Before his assignment in SsangYong Motors, Hemant was Head Manufacturing – Automotive Sector, where he provided strategic direction in improving productivity, workmen involvement and raising standards through initiatives like ‘Quality First’. Prior to joining the Mahindra group in 2000, Hemant spent 9 years with Maruti Suzuki.
Dr. Sajjid Z. Chinoy is Managing Director and Chief India Economist at J.P. Morgan, and a member of the Economic Advisory Council to India’s Prime Minister (EAC-PM). He also currently serves on the Governing Council of CAFRAL (Center for Advanced Financial Research and Learning) set up by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). He is also a member of the Next Bretton Woods Group (NBWG) set up under the auspices of the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington D.C. Dr. Chinoy previously served on the Advisory Council to India’s 15th Finance Commission and was a member of the “Expert Committee to Revise and Strengthen the Monetary Policy Framework” set up by the RBI which proposed inflation targeting in India in 2014. He has served on other RBI committees including Offshore Rupee Markets and Developing a Secondary Market for Corporate Loans. In 2016, he served as a consultant to the FRBM Review Committee which proposed a new fiscal anchor for India. Dr. Chinoy has been ranked as one of India’s Best Fixed Income Researchers by Asset Magazine for every year since 2013, and was awarded the J.P. Morgan Excellence Award for Value Creation in 2011. He has co-edited a book, “India’s External, Financial and Fiscal Polices” with Dr. Anne O. Krueger, former First Deputy Managing Director of the IMF, and his research has been published in books, conference volumes, IMF and RBI working papers, and journals. Dr. Chinoy has previously worked at the IMF and McKinsey & Company. He received his Ph.D. at Stanford University. His Ph.D. dissertation won the EXIM Bank award for the best dissertation by an Indian national in 2001.
Shinjini Kumar is one of India’s leading businesswomen in the fields of banking and finance. She is the co-founder of SALT-mysaltapp, a fintech platform which seeks to make it easier for women to access and use financial products. Prior to setting up SALT in 2021, Shinjini had occupied senior leadership positions at multinational banks and consultancies, and at the Reserve Bank of India. She writes and speaks nationally and internationally on several subjects relating to the Indian financial system. Shinjini holds post graduate degrees in English Literature and Public Policy. She is also co-founder of www.indiannovelscollective.com and writes fiction.
Priya Agrawal is the Founder Director of Antarang Foundation, a non-profit organization that has enabled over 200,000 young adults make aspirational school to work transitions. Over the last decade, Priya and her team at Antarang have bridged the inequity in awareness and access to mainstream careers for young adults from socially and economically disadvantaged communities. Through an education integrated model that serves all high school students across 25 districts in India, Antarang has seen 92% of all students that they have worked with make informed transitions to higher or vocational education or productive employment.
Priya is an Ashoka Fellow and an Aspi-Re fellow.
Alok Kshirsagar is a Senior Partner with McKinsey & Company with deep experience in performance improvement and growth initiatives through his time in the firm’s London, New York, and India offices. Alok has led a number of McKinsey capabilities as well. He is currently the Asia Leader for the People and Organizational Performance Platform which is responsible for all of McKinsey’s people, assets, and techniques that drive organizational health, improve execution through large-scale capability building, and build new leadership skills for clients. Previously he has also led the Asia Risk Management practice, and the McKinsey Asia Centre – a special initiative to help companies drive successful global expansion. Alok serves on the global Senior Partner Election Committee. He has also previously served on the Partner Review Committee that evaluates all partners globally. He is the Honorary President of the National Association for the Blind, in Karnataka. He serves on a number of other boards for non-profits such as: PRS Legislative Research, Aangan, the United World Colleagues National Committee for India, and the advisory board of the Wildlife Conservation Trust. The World Economic Forum named Alok a "Young Global Leader" in 2012 in recognition of his commitment to international business and public policy. Alok received a postgraduate degree in Politics and Economics from Oxford University, where he was an Inlaks Scholar. He has a bachelor’s degree in Economics from St. Xavier's College, Mumbai where he was a National Merit Scholar.
Event Details
Registrations begin at 6:15 pm.
The Royal Opera House, Mumbai
Mathew Rd, Charni Road East, Opera House, Girgaon, Mumbai, Maharashtra 400004