Davos 2025: India in a bright spot; can become third pole after US, China, says McKinsey Chairman Gautam Kumra

McKinsey Asia Chairman Gautam Kumra at Davos 2025

India is in a bright spot and has the potential to emerge as a third major pole globally after the US and China, said Gautam Kumra, Chairman of McKinsey Asia.

“India is in a bright spot. The world that has always been bipolar, with the US as the main pole. And now with China – we know what the situation is – India has the potential to be a third pole,” Kumra said, speaking to Moneycontrol at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos on January 22.

He added that the potential of India is being recognized by both government and business community stakeholders, with increasing ease of doing business in the country. “This could be India’s time. This should be India’s time,” Kumra emphasized.

Weighing the implications of now US President Donald Trump’s re-election, Kumra said that geopolitical risks should be assessed with a wide lens.

This comes a day after Trump repeated his tariff warning to BRICS nations, which includes India, saying the member-countries will face 100 percent tariffs if they continue their de-dollarisation efforts.

“Everybody talks about tariffs, but when you think of geopolitical risks, we need to take a broader aperture…A lot of policies still have to translate. His (Trump’s) principles are clear. We know where his mood is. But the policies are still not clear. The big elephant in the room is whether this will cause inflation,” Kumra said.

Kumra, however, added that Trump’s re-election will open up several avenues for value creation. “Some of the corridors, particularly the India-US corridor, is going to become critical for the next decade,” he said.

While Trump’s second term has been a hot topic at Davos 2025, Kumra also highlighted the ongoing wave of disruption brought about by artificial intelligence (AI), and generative AI. He suggested embracing the disruptive nature of AI, which is expected to “increase the value-added content of most jobs” and, in turn, create more jobs.

“For us as a firm, what matters the most is how this is going to impact our clients. It’s a big productivity boost, it’s a big arena for new ideas. I am excited about the potential of productivity and income growth and what that means for our clients,” he said, talking about AI’s potential impact on the consulting industry.

Kumra also spoke about initiatives that the government can undertake to deal with the ongoing consumption slowdown in India. In this regard, he spoke about initiatives like the government’s commitment to invest in public infrastructure.

“It (investments) has really stepped up over the last couple of years, going from $25-30 billion to now over $100 billion. I think the government needs to find a way to sustain that,” he said.

Kumra also lauded the Centre’s continued push on manufacturing and innovation, from initatives like Make in India to the various production linked incentive (PLI) schemes. He called for further structural reforms in land and labour, to attract both global and local investment into India.

“Third is innovation. For India to drive that kind of growth, we need a productivity boost, which entails massive investments in technology…India has been a leading figure in the area of digital public infrastructure. But now we have to embrace AI and generative AI, and use that as a way to drive productivity growth,” Kumra said.