Indian Newslink 15th May 2017 Digital Edition

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Businesslink
MAY 15, 2017
“Double standards impede engagement with India”
Amitabh Kant expresses National disappointment
Venkat Raman
venkat@indiannewslink.co.nz
Advanced countries of the
world continue to underestimate
India’s capacity
to stand on its own on
economic and fiscal matters, and
continue to baffle with their double
standards on international trade and
investment, a top official of the Indian
government has said.
Amitabh Kant, Chief Executive
of the National Institution for Transforming
India (NITI), an ambitious
autonomous organisation established
by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to
lead the charge of making the world’s
largest democracy the world’s most
dynamic country, said that globalisation
has been used by ‘these countries’
for their selfish interests.
Globalisation dressing
“The approach is underscored by
hypocrisy. On the one hand, they
speak of globalisation which implies
free movement of trade, services,
investment and people, while on
the other, they apply protectionist
measures when it comes to bilateral
trade. Such double standards are
India’s interests,” he said during a long
interview with Indian Newslink in
Auckland on May 4, 2017.
He stopped short of naming New
Zealand, which has been locked into a
debate with India on the ten-years-on,
inconclusive and impossible Free
Trade Agreement (FTA) but the
implication was evident.
“New Zealand can benefit by participating
in India’s Services Sector,
which has been fully liberalised.
We would welcome New Zealand
to be our partner in modernising
and expanding our infrastructure,
education, health and other areas.
There are no restrictions on Foreign
Direct Investment (FDI). We have the
presence and participation of almost
all major multinationals in India. The
New Zealand government and Kiwi
companies should realise that India is
the place to be in the next three years,”
he said.
Amitabh Kant speaking at the dinner hosted
by Foreign Affairs & Trade Ministry and India
New Zealand Business Council in Auckland
on May 3
Bankruptcy Law
Mr Kant said that the Bankruptcy
Law, now in place, is an important
phase in the development of the Indian
corporate world.
“The Statute will facilitate ease of
business, with robust systems and
procedures,” he said.
India’s Lok Sabha (Lower House
of Parliament) passed the Insolvency
and Bankruptcy Code 2016 on May
12, 2016. The move could turn one of
the slowest insolvency regimes of any
major economy into one of the fastest.
The reform will give banks a clear
path to wresting control of insolvent
companies unable to repay their debts.
Economists in India see this as a
breakthrough that will allow banks to
recover their dues in a timely manner,
in contrast to the earlier system in
which they often waged protracted legal
battles to recover what they were owed.
The reform came at a time of heightened
focus on the bad debts weighing
down India’s banking system, amid the
bitter battle by state banks to collect on
about US$1.3 billion of debt left by the
collapse of industrialist Vijay Mallya’s
now defunct Kingfisher Airlines.
Exciting Times
According to Mr Kant, India is
at an exciting stage of growth and
development with several economic
and commercial reforms in place.
He cited the enforcement of GST
(eliminating all state taxes, excise duties,
octroi and such other charges), increased
energy output, relocation of silicon-valley
companies from the USA and start-up
of thousands of others, massive
urbanisation, heighted phase of high-end
technology, research and many other
innovative enterprises. Most sectors,
which were hitherto a close preserve
of the central government – such as
Railways and Defence – are now open to
private sector investment, he said.
“India will be the only country to have
a comprehensive biometric technology
to integrate all state services within the
next two years. Communication will
be at its optimum level with more than
one billion mobile phones in use. Trade,
Amitabh Kant with Prime Minister Bill English in
Wellington on May 2
commerce, in fact, all transactions will be
based on digital technology. Last year’s
demonetisation (of Rs 1000 and Rs
500 currency notes) has encouraged an
upsurge in online and card transactions.
We are fast moving to a stage of cashless
society,” he said.
Dynamic bureaucrat
A Civil Servant of the Indian Administrative
Service (IAS) of the Kerala
Cadre, Mr Kant’s creative thinking and
penchant to make India the ‘Country of
Amitabh Kant with his wife Ranjeeta in New
Zealand in Waiheke Island on May 4
the Century’ attracted the attention of
Mr Modi, who has an innate ability to
recognise and embrace talent.
South Block (which accommodates
the Prime Minister’s Office) sources
often say that Mr Kant’s thinking
and planning are well matched by his
ability to execute the process. Stated to
be intolerant to those who fail to rise
to his expectations, he is the architect
who gives life to the dreams of his
political boss.
Some of the projects and
programmes that have lifted India’s
profile nationally and internationally
are ‘Make In India,’ ‘Startup India,’
‘Incredible India,’ and ‘God’s Own
Country.’ His campaign ‘Atithi Devo
Bhavah’ (Guest is God) steered almost
everyone involved in the hospitality
and tourism industry including
immigration officials, hoteliers, tour
operators, tour guides and taxi drivers
to make tourists, international visitors
and others enjoy Indian hospitality at
its best.
Official Meetings
Mr Kant was in New Zealand as a
guest of the New Zealand government
fulfilling his role as the Fellow of the
‘Sir Edmund Hillary Fellowship for
India and Nepal’ this year.
During his week-long stay, he met
Prime Minister Bill English, Foreign
Minister Murry McCully, other
Ministers, Members of Parliament,
India’s High Commissioner Sanjiv
Kohli, business and community leaders.
He addressed a dinner meeting of the
India New Zealand Business Council
and a breakfast meeting of the India
Trade Alliance, both jointly hosted by
the Foreign Affairs and Trade Ministry.
He also visited several places of
tourist interest. He was accompanied
by his wife Ranjeeta, an accomplished
painter.
About Sir Edmund Hillary
Fellowship
“It is a great honour to be the
‘Fellow of the Sir Edmund Hillary
Fellowship of India and Nepal’ of the
New Zealand government. Sir Edmund
cemented Indo-Kiwi relations and I am
delighted to visit this beautiful country.
Despite differences in some areas, I am
confident that we can work together for
the betterment of the peoples of the two
countries.,” Mr Kant said.
The Sir Hillary Fellowship for
India and Nepal was established by
the Labour Government in September
2008 and announced by then Prime
Minister Helen Clark on September 10,
2008, the day then Governor General
Sir Anand Satyanand met then Indian
President Pratibha Patil during his first
official visit to India.
“One visit under the Fellowship will
take place to New Zealand each year
and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
and Trade will oversee the selection of
Fellows,” Ms Clark had said.
Indian National Congress Party
Leader Rahul Gandhi was the first
recipient of the Fellowship and
visited New Zealand in that capacity on
February 14, 2010.
Vijay Mallya, Chairman of the
defunct King Fisher Airlines, who is
facing extradition proceedings in a British
Court was appointed as the Fellow
in 2011 but did not fulfil the Fellowship
requirements. It was in fact an insult to
the New Zealand government and New
Zealanders.
Crisis brings the best out of female executives
Venkat Raman
venkat@indiannewslink.co.nz
The ‘Glass Cliff Syndrome’
influences Corporate New
Zealand, a research study has
revealed.
‘Glass Cliff’ is a term coined by two
professors from Exeter University to
describe the phenomenon of women
and those from minority groups being
more likely to achieve leadership roles
during periods of crisis, when the
chance of failure is highest.
Massey University MBA graduate
Kam Sharma said that women and people
from minority ethnic backgrounds
were more likely to become Chief
Executives than white men when a
firm is going through a period of weak
performance.
The revelation
His conclusion was based on an analysis
of the circumstances leading to the
promotion of ‘occupational minorities’
to the role of Chief Executive in NZX
50 companies over a 12-year period.
Mr Sharma found that there were 59
Chief Executive transitions at NZX 50
companies and that only four of these
transitions led to a Chief Executive
Kam Sharrma
from an occupational minority. Of
these, there were two clear examples
of the Chief Executive taking the helm
during a period of crisis.
“There is no doubt that when Ralph
Norris took over Air New Zealand it
was in dire straits – it had announced
a $1.4 billion operating loss in 2001
following the collapse of Ansett. Similarly,
for Vicki Salmon, taking on the
top job at New Zealand’s only listed
fast-food company Restaurant Brands
was effectively a hospital pass because
of a historic lack of investment,” he
said.
Existing bias
According to Mr Sharma, there
could be an existing bias that suggests
that women and ethnic minority
leaders will bring a more collaborative
approach at a time when that is needed.
Or it could be that occupational minorities
feel they should take leadership
opportunities when they are offered,
even if there is a higher risk of failure.
“Good interpersonal skills are
valued when you have to make difficult
personnel decisions in struggling
organisations, and hence the stereotype
that women and ethnic minority men
are better at that sort of thing is seen as
compensation for other qualities they
are assumed to lack,” Mr Sharma said.
“The pool of potential Chief Executives
willing to take on a struggling
business is smaller and hence occupational
minority Chief Executives who
take over in these circumstances have a
very difficult job to do that others do not
want. They are often not well supported
and, if they are not successful, the
existing biases are reconfirmed,” he
added.
Concluding Issue
Acknowledging that the small number
of transitions in his study makes it
hard to draw strong conclusions, Mr
Sharma said that was reflection of the
barriers that women and those from
minority ethnic backgrounds face in
reaching the top levels of management.
“During the period of my study there
were only seven occupational minority
Chief Executives – two were already
Chief Executives of their companies
when the NZX 50 index was established
in 2003, and were subsequently replaced
by ‘traditional’ Chief Executives.
The third was Rod Drury, Chief Executives
of Xero, who founded his own
company. Only four new occupational
minority CEOs were promoted over the
12 years of the study – and all of them
have since been replaced by traditional
chief executives. Rod Drury is currently
the sole occupational minority Chief
Executive leading a NZX 50 company –
so you could argue that the trend is not
improving,” Mr Sharma said.
He said that with only one Maori
male Chief Executive and no female
Chief Executives leading an NZX 50
company at present, it is clear there is
a tendency to “think manager, think
male.”
“Because the numbers are so small,
it is hard to know exactly what is going
on inside organisations. We need more
research at all levels of management
to better understand the point at which
occupational minorities, despite their
capability and hard work, are failing to
break through. If women and people
of ethnic minorities are not coming
through the ranks, they are not in the
talent pool being considered for the top
jobs,” Mr Sharma said.