Outlook 2024: Corporate chieftains highly bullish on India growth story

Former HDFC chairman Deepak Parekh believes that the best for India is yet to come and that he is never been more optimistic of the country's future as he is now.

Ahead of the New Year 2024, India Inc bigwigs seem to be on the same page when it comes to India's growth trajectory, as Deepak Parekh, NR Narayana Murthy, Uday Kotak and Kiran Mazumdar Shaw shared their unwavering optimism about the country's economic prospects.

Kotak, the veteran banker and founder of Kotak Mahindra Bank, outlined his dream for India with a financial sector model backed by 9 percent annual growth and a $30-trillion GDP by 2047. He said India is transforming from a nation of savers to that of investors and the tussle between the saver/borrower and issuer/investor model is underway.

"At this point, I wish all of us to celebrate India at 100. And, how do we transform India. The aim is for 9 percent per annum GDP for the next 25 years. What does it take for people, policymakers, and practitioners to achieve this? All of us should dream of a $30-trillion economy and per capita income of every Indian at $15,000-plus from its current $2500. This is the dream," he said.

Kotak pointed out that investors who have entered the market after the Covid pandemic have mainly seen the upside, and cautioned that while the situation is not comparable at present, we need to keep Japan of the 80s at the back of our mind. "Its Nikkei Index peak was 1,989. Some 34 years later with near-zero interest rates, the Nikkei is still below its 1,989 peak," he said.

Former HDFC chairman Parekh believes that the best for India is yet to come, and mentioned that he was never more optimistic about the country's future. "I would like to see India's ride ahead and claim its rightful, honourable place in history, and I have been saying this for the last few months that in my last fifty-odd years of working in India, I have never been more optimistic as I have been today."

Murthy, who co-founded Infosys, credited the current sense of hope and confidence to the leadership. "This year is all about hope, confidence, and optimism. All of this has happened because of our prime minister. It is whether urban or rural India, or educated India or not so well-educated India, whether it is rich or poor, everybody is positive, and that is an extraordinarily difficult task," he said.

Shaw, chief executive and founder of Biocon, expressed her aspiration for global leadership from India. "I have always wanted to put India on a global map at a leadership level. I aspire to global leadership from India."

Tata Sons' Chairman Natarajan Chandrasekaran chose to measure his steps with more vigilance. He cautioned employees of the Tata Group about the anticipated volatility and disruption in 2024 will be driven by the evolving global landscape in data privacy regulations. In his year-end letter to employees, he highlighted geopolitics as a potential source of volatility. "The complexity of global governance will reach new heights as the world establishes new rules to safeguard data privacy, address inflation, reduce carbon emissions, and manage perceptions of AI risk."

He also noted that 2024 is marked by elections, with 40 nations heading to the polls during the year.

Despite the cautionary tone, Chandrasekaran presented a silver lining, emphasising a promising future for India. "In 2023, we performed exceptionally well. We demonstrated commendable leadership at a historic G20 Summit. Our economy is thriving, with GDP set to double to $7 trillion over the next five years." He expressed confidence that India is well-positioned to benefit from the transformative shifts reshaping the world.

Moving towards the boom in artificial intelligence (AI), especially in 2023, Chandrasekaran said: "Generative AI, for example, is a potential antidote to our access and inequality problems—provided we are careful and introduce the right rules."