Half of US stunned, other half exhilarated with Trump win: Shaw

Q: One thing that Brexit has taught us, it is not to discount the event and Trump is now in the White House? A: I am here in New York and people are divided in this country between one half who are stunned and the other who are exhilarated. This is absolutely a leap into the unknown because I think people just don't know how to fathom Donald Trump as the next President and what he is going to be doing. So, it is a very interesting time, a very challenging time but like you said this is about the world which has changed where people are basically losing confidence in entrenched political systems and this time around it is like Donald Trump said, Brexit plus plus. Q: I want to pick up on what we should make of Donald Trump as President, I was listening to one commentator who said that perhaps the media has taken too literally and not seriously enough and perhaps the voter has taken Trump seriously and not literally. May be that explains why the media and the polls got this wrong? A: You have seen that the polls have got many things wrong in the recent past. I think we need to understand what is happening in terms of the general physique. I think it is very clear that we all talk about inclusive economic development but we also know that many people feel marginalised, many people feel excluded from any kind of economic development or the benefits of certain types of economic growth and that is what you are seeing around the world. You can see that Donald Trump's victory has actually excited many others like him. It is becoming a case of xenophobia, it is anti globalisation, it is about getting jobs back into their various countries, it is not easy, it is going to be a very difficult world out there. The world has changed today because of what Donald Trump stands for, what Donald Trump is saying about what he is going to do to make America great again. It is worrying for many people because many parts of the world feel exactly the same way, Europe to start with. Q: Specifically from India’s standpoint and specifically from an India pharma point of view what is this win going to be, I mean Trump has made absolutely no bones about the fact that he intends to do away with Obamacare, but there were concerns on what Hillary Clinton’s victory would mean for the Indian pharmaceutical sector, but on balance Trump good or bad for Indian pharma? A: It appears that Indian pharma was going to be okay one way or another, whether it was Trump or Hillary, both are very committed to bringing down the cost of healthcare and from that point of view I don’t think Indian pharma is going to suffer or have any impact of the Trump victory. Personally, I think the Indian community per se have been talking to a lot of Indians in America and they all were very much Trump’s supporters, because they believe that he will be pro-business - - it is really very difficult to sort of gauge what he is going to do and only time will tell what he has in store for the US economy, for the global economy. I think its early days yet of course we will have to see what he is going to do in terms of appointing his cabinet. We have to see what his initial policies are going to be, but it is very clear that Obamacare is going to be scrapped, Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is going to be scrapped, North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is going to be scrapped - - I think we are kind of now heading into a very, very different world. Q: He signalled that intent, we don’t know whether he will eventually follow through, he certainly has signalled his intent to reverse those global trade deals and those global trade arrangements, but we don’t know once he is in the White House whether he is going to follow through exactly or not. Politicians do say a lot of stuff on the campaign trail that eventually doesn’t get taken forward? A: I don’t know, but these are something he has been very, very emphatic about. He kept talking about these 3 aspects; NAFTA, TPP and Obamacare and I will be very surprised if he does not follow through with what he had said in his campaign.