Saturday 7 April 2012

[www.keralites.net] High Performance Nation

 

Now is the time to build a High Performance Nation

By Avinash Vishistha.

Four Imperatives for Policy Makers and Business Leaders.

India has all that it takes to leapfrog into the next stage of social and economic growth. A healthy economic growth rate, a place among the top 10 leading global economies with a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of US$1.53 trillion, the world's second largest workforce at 467 million people and a burgeoning middle class - expected to touch 530 million people in 2030 – are all indicators of a nation that is poised to take flight into the next stage growth.

At Accenture, we have identified four key drivers which, if developed effectively, would accelerate India's journey to becoming a high performance nation. These include creation of an innovation economy, empowered people, digital citizen & collaborative ecosystem.

Firstly, India's growth is linked to its ability to create an innovation economy that is focused on developing novel solutions for local needs. To create such an economy, India will need to further build on its unique strengths at developing sustainable and cost effective solutions for the population at the bottom of the pyramid. Encouraging innovation at the grass root level will promote greater innovation across the country. The government has already started the shift from funding innovation ideas to acting as a catalyst. Business leaders have also started playing their role through inclusive business models that use lesser resources and often provide benefits to society through increased employment. By consolidating these models, business can unearth new revenue-generating customer segments, launch new products, create new scaling capabilities and discover fresh talent.

Secondly, empowered people and talent are critical drivers of a high-performance nation. To fully unleash the strategic advantages of a demographic dividend and steady economic growth, India must continue its mission of empowering more people to participate in India's growth opportunities.

The government has set an ambitious target of training or providing skills to 500 million people by 2022 and turning India into a strong hub of skilled professionals. This target can be met through the active participation of all stakeholders: government, industry and society as a whole. With proper coordination between traditional educational institutions and new methods of remote education, India can build a multi-faceted education system that promotes skill diversity and empowers a wider variety of citizens to participate in the formal economy. Demand-driven skill development will play an important role in expanding India's education infrastructure. Business can work with government and academia to broaden access to quality primary education and improve the design and delivery of vocational curricula.

Thirdly, the emergence of India's digital citizens, in large numbers, has the potential to fuel the economy's next stage of technology-led growth. Widespread digital literacy is critical for amplifying technology's impact on productivity and innovation across the wider economy.

From super computers to a mobile phone for as little as US$25 to even a computer built into the wall of an urban building, Indian citizens across income levels are increasingly engaging in digital information exchange and commerce on a daily basis. This is creating new opportunities for business governance and society. In the last five years, the government has started to pave the way for transforming governance through technology. On the back of this momentum, it now has the added opportunity to make e-governance programmes even more citizen-centric and available to an even wider set of people. India's ambitious national unique identity (UID) project is a fine example of technology cutting across social, economic and other demographic barriers across the country. Indigenous and innovative application of technology will help speed up the transformation of a developing country into a high-performance nation.

Fourthly, in a country as large as India, building and scaling solutions is rarely one entity's job. Encouraging and supporting collaborative ecosystems will continue to be critical for developing solutions at the scale necessary to turn India into a high performance nation. Governments, business and communities should continue to collaborate to accelerate the delivery of key national priorities such as infrastructure, education, financial inclusion and healthcare – all of which will impact the nation's social and economic growth.

The challenge to build India's strong infrastructure is not borne solely by India's business leaders or the government. The size and scale of investments in infrastructure and capital projects make it imperative for industry, government and other stakeholders to collectively find ways to foster a predictable and enabling business environment. The benefits of these partnerships must continue to reach the widest possible number of stakeholders if India is to emerge a force to reckon with in the decades ahead.

To sum up, significant challenges await India in 2012 and beyond. In a country of more than a billion people with a complex social and economic fabric, rising to meet these challenges will require India-specific solutions that have a broad impact across income levels. Equally important, developing the solutions on the scale necessary to address India's challenges will mean government, industry and India's citizens must continue working together. All in all, a rising citizen centric government, India's entrepreneurial spirit, the spread of technology and a newly empowered citizenry will advance India's journey towards becoming a high-performance nation.

By Avinash Vashistha, CMD, Accenture India.



www.keralites.net

__._,_.___
Recent Activity:
KERALITES - A moderated eGroup exclusively for Keralites...
To subscribe send a mail to Keralites-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.
Send your posts to Keralites@yahoogroups.com.
Send your suggestions to Keralites-owner@yahoogroups.com.

To unsubscribe send a mail to Keralites-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com.

Homepage: www.keralites.net
.

__,_._,___

No comments:

Post a Comment