I have returned to India, not long after my June visit when I described the country as a juggernaut. I have learned on this trip that the word "juggernaut" is of Indian origin — it is the anglicised name for the Hindu god, Jagannath, the "Lord of the Universe" — appropriate and prophetic.
This trip to India was two-pronged: the first involved visiting small-hold farmers in the mountainous region of Meghalaya in the northeast. At moments I was brought to tears by the people, the mountains, the beauty, the plants, the potential, the unspoiled story.
I would give more detail but that would be premature. What I can say is exciting things are brewing and I will share them as soon as I can with appropriate hoopla.
The second prong of my visit was as part of New Zealand’s largest business delegation to India, alongside Trade Minister Damien O’Connor.
It would be easy to lay down the statistics to impress on you the size of the economy and the magnitude to which it is changing — but India is more than numbers and that is what New Zealand needs to understand if our countries are to walk shoulder-to-shoulder, despite our disparate sizes. The best way for me to describe India and its innovative path is to share some sector journeys.
Let us start with the pharmaceutical industry, where India strives to be "the pharmacy of the world". For India, the Covid-19 pandemic provided an inflection point for its pharmaceutical industry as it collaborated internationally and catered for domestic and global vaccine needs. This was in addition to already producing about 80% of the world’s generic pharmaceuticals, which includes painkillers, antibiotics, statins — the chances are high that you have Indian-manufactured products in your medicine cabinet.
At first sight this capacity shows India can be the world’s next manufacturing hub for a range of products, pharmaceutical and beyond, but to stop there would underestimate what this capacity actually means.
Alongside its manufacturing capacity, India has developed immense human capability and acumen in pharmaceutical and medical sciences, as well as the business of biotechnology and commercialisation.
India will not only be the world’s pharmaceutical manufacturers; it will be, and in some instances, already is, the world’s pharmaceutical innovator.
We should expect to see global pharmaceutical blockbusters coming out of India but here is where it gets intriguing. The modern pharmaceutical industry is led by the United States and is a high-cost and high-price model, yet the manufacturing and ingredients costs of most of the pharmaceuticals we buy are a tiny fraction of what we pay — there are some eye-watering profits out there. India will be mega-users of patented pharmaceuticals due to its population size, but not at current prices — expect to see different commercialisation models and lower cost products, combined with digitisation of healthcare at a scale and speed we have not seen before. Will India shake to the core the profits of the pharmaceutical superpowers?
And to another sector — I landed in India the day after its successful craft landing on the south side of the moon. I understand India is now off to the sun with its first sun-probe mission — and at far lower costs than its equivalents. At $US74 million ($NZ125m), India’s moon mission was less than half the cost of Russia’s south-pole lander ($US200m), which misfired its engines and crashed, as well as the estimated budget of Nasa’s planned Viper rover to the lunar south pole ($US433.5m).
I do not personally get excited about space travel, unlike my business partner who is like a kid in a candy store. However, grinch as I am, I cannot ignore the symbolic message of innovation, but innovation done differently — innovation done on the "smell of an oily rag" and how that itself is a source of pride and disruption. Happily, there is also some Kiwi innovation "No 8 wire" in the India space equation. The managing director for Rakon’s Indian operations, Arun Parasnis, was part of our business delegation. Rakon contributed to India’s moon equation with its technical navigation equipment and has a significant presence in India, a sign of things to come for New Zealand businesses, if we are smart.
In understanding India’s innovation journey, it is also worth talking about another sector and a key domestic innovation that might lead the way in global digital financial technology.
India has largely been a cash society until recently, with complex inter-region tax rules that made trading between Mumbai and Delhi as difficult as trading between Mumbai and Shanghai. The Modi government has transformed the tax system to a national one, so trading internally is simple. Online payment systems have had huge uptake, allowing the government to gain GST income and better track financial statistics.
In India, visa cards, eftpos and ATMs are tools of the past — India is leading the way in unified payments interfaces, e-wallets and mobile banking. We bought roasted peanuts from a street-side seller. My travelling colleague, Dr Nitin Nagrale, simply scanned the peanut roaster’s phone with his and bingo, transaction made.
There are government initiatives, such as the Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojana scheme which is bringing millions of previously unbanked citizens into the banking system and promotes traction by offering cash-back incentives for digital transactions. With these systems, there are far greater opportunities for financial inclusion and credits and loans so people can lift their standard of living.
New Zealand business and government representatives are still talking of "comprehensive" free trade agreements (FTA) with India. I have heard time and time again that India does not want dairy in a FTA. We desperately need to understand that "comprehensive" will not happen in the next five years and we cannot let the dairy industry hold other industries’ progress up in this vital market. Australia has an FTA which excludes dairy, and India is negotiating with the European Union, the United Kingdom and Canada.
We need India, more than they need us, and while cricket is a wonderful passion we share, it is not enough. To sum up, in India, innovation is prospering in health, space travel, financial systems and throughout society — quite frankly, it’s electrifying.
But we shouldn’t talk about innovation and progress without talking about the humility with which they are coupled. Indians often speak of their rich history and their journey of coming out from 450 years of colonisation. The layers of religion and society are beyond my understanding, but their commitment to service and love for family, improving the environment (solar panels in Ahmedabad as an example) and long-term thinking are entrenched and palpable. Cultural and economic differences are the reasons why these new waves of innovation and disruption might look very different from what we have seen before. Here’s hoping — the world needs a new paradigm.
— Anna Campbell is the co-founder of Zestt Wellness, a nutraceutical company and holds various directorships.
