Ladies and gentlemen, it is such a privilege and an honor to have the iconic N. Narayana Murthy here with us at the CNBC TV18 Global Leadership Summit. And for me personally, he has been a mentor. I did my first interview with him about 20 years ago, and we've had an interview pretty much every year since then. I've been part of the clock, so very, very happy, Mr. Murthy. You've joined us on a very important milestone, the clock ticking. Thank you so much. Well, Shereen, I've always treated you like I treat my daughter, Akshata. So you are special, and attending this event and having a conversation with you is, of course, an absolute privilege, a pleasure, and pride. Thank you.
The privilege and pleasure is all mine, sir. So let me start by talking to you about the next 25 for India. As you look at where we stand today, Mr. Murthy, and there is a lot of hope, there is a lot of optimism. What is your prescription for the road ahead, the next 25 for India? The Narayana Murthy notes. Thank you.
Well, you know, we have done reasonably well in the last 30 years, and in the last few years, there is a new confidence, a new hope, a new sense of energy. For example, you see street vendors selling apples, oranges, capsicum, etc., which is not a thing that we used to see earlier. In other words, there is reasonable disposable income in the hands of the urban middle class. At the same time, India has huge challenges. First of all, before I say anything, let me say this: I am running 79 years. Now, it's very important to say I am an elder to most politicians and definitely much elder to all the bureaucrats. So whatever I say is with a sense of affection and admiration, and it's not criticism. I don't know how long I will live. My friend Ratan went away a few weeks ago. There, I have no vested interest in whatever I say. All that I want is to see an India which has fulfilled the dreams of our founding fathers. Anyway, having said that, at the same time, you see 800 million Indians receiving free ration. You see free electricity being given. You see free bus rides being given. While you look at it from one perspective, it's all a good thing, but another perspective is that while urban India is making rapid strides, there is a large part of India that has not benefited from all the wonderful globalization that we have had. So there, the need of the day for us is to focus on job creation, primarily low-tech job creation, because most of these people who are on ration are people who cannot take up jobs in the software industry. So the focus has to be on low-tech job creation. And number two, given that the disposable income of India is rather low, there we have to focus on exports, like China, like Vietnam, and like a few other nations in East Asia are doing, because that's the only way you can create a large number of jobs, and that's the only way you can put some disposable income in the hands of people, and that's the only way that secondary and tertiary industries, like what we are seeing in all this vigi and all of that, they can indeed take off. And that obviously is export-oriented. What that means is we have to become nimble. We have to learn from our competition, competitive countries. We have to take quick decisions. We have to get to a level of excellence in everything that we do. Definitely, higher level of excellence. How do we do it? You know, a lot of my European and American friends tell me that it is time for India to move from an administrative mindset to a management mindset. They tell me that administration is all about status quo. On the other hand, management is all about vision, high aspiration. It's about achievement.
Modi has done a brilliant job so far in terms of accelerating our economy. A lot may want to look at whether we need more of managers in the government rather than administrators. And to do that, perhaps he may want to look at selecting people from the various management institutes, bringing them into the government. I hope the opposition won't have much objection. Like Devi Lalji, bring them into the government first, get them trained at Mussoorie on decision-making under uncertainty, on facing the competition, on creating competitive advantages, on being open-minded to learn from people who perform better than us, on strategic thinking, on simulation, on workflow management, on project management, and other management techniques. My request at this old age is that Prime Minister Modi takes a decision to convert the administrative mindset to management mindset, take more and more managers, and you know, give them opportunities to bring speed, imagination, and excellence in decision-making and in implementation in the public governance system. I believe India will then accelerate even more, because he has a very laudable, very visionary objective, which is to reach 50 trillion dollars by 2047. I think we are all with him. I think we want it to happen. We will do whatever he wants us to do, but without a very efficient, effective, agile, you know, open-minded public governance system, that may be somewhat difficult.
