India will need to build global brands if it has to compete head on with China, said Anand Mahindra, chairman and managing director of the Mahindra Group.
“If we have to build brand India, India will need to build global brands. We have to leapfrog China and start doing that quickly,” he said.
He was speaking at the CNN Asia Business Forum 2016, which was taking place in Mumbai on February 14, as part of the ongoing ‘Make in India’ week.
Mahindra said that India could continue to gain from the current tough economic conditions which impact China. “There will be migration of some low-cost work to India, from China [due to the slowdown there],” Mahindra said. “But my only concern is that this should not be the only place where we (India and China) do battle,” he said.
Mahindra stressed that Make in India was not just a policy. “Make in India is a rallying cry. The government has to give direction and move away after creating institutions which regulate,” he said.
Mahindra called for the swifter imposition of the bankruptcy laws and remove the stigma of failure, which businessmen faced. He argued against the perception that some people had, that the Make in India campaign would make India a sweat shop of the world, to manufacture products. “This is not so," Mahindra said.
SPECIAL COVERAGE: Make in India Week 2016
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