Chair:		S. Krishna Kumar, Secretary, MOIA MOS (IC)
Speaker:		Dr. Mohanbir Sawhney, Professor of Marketing, Kellogg School, USA

Secretary, MOIA, introduced the roundtable as a new input for the conference. Two themes had been selected: 'India: The Knowledge Powerhouse' and 'India: The Economic Powerhouse'. This session, he said, was on the knowledge powerhouse on which Prof. Sawhney had in the past articulated a few seminal ideas.

Prof. Sawhney referred to his article in Business World five years back. He referred to the transition of India from a land of fakirs and snake charmers to engineers and entrepreneurs. He made a mention of the economic dimension and indicated that the knowledge sector is likely to grow to about $17.1 billion industry for India by 2010 from about $2 billion-plus currently. He emphasised that there is a need to move from the BPO sector to other aspects of knowledge processing.

He explained the concept of knowledge density of business, which brought higher value addition to our abilities. He talked of the 3Ps: People, Processes and Products. The people dimension can be seen in practice through body shopping and call centre models. There is a need to focus now on global delivery models with regard to processes. The product should be embedded in people and processes, he said. To him, new areas such as healthcare, entertainment and law were potential areas of the future, stressing the need for marketing and how we could turn to diaspora gurus like him who had guided world leaders such as Sony and Microsoft.

Giving examples of global brands such as Windows, he also referred to challenges posed by Korean companies in consumer electronics and automobiles even in countries such as USA. He wanted India to take the cue and create world-class brands.

"Move from India on the inside to India outside," he said. He referred to the potential of Indian companies such as Ranbaxy, Ad Labs and Bharat Forge in becoming world-class brands. Saying "Reverse the flow of the Ganges", he called upon the gathering to ensure flow of products outside. He called for a shift in the mindset of Indians to move away from IT to other knowledge industries such as genetics and agriculture. The key was a transition from "back office operations" to "front office operations". Strategic acquisitions were the first step, he said, while referring to Wipro (medical electronics) and questioning their strategy and approach of not wanting to compete with their clients.

Prof. Sawhney highlighted the need for a strong intellectual property tradition, which would be helpful in building copyrights and patents. He called upon the Indian diaspora to help reverse brain drain and provide guidance in managerial and marketing sectors. They could be entrepreneurs and investors and lend their expertise in different sectors. Research and consulting were two strategic areas in which the academia could play a crucial role.

Q&A

* J.C. Sharma, former Secretary, MEA, wanted to know about using knowledge density to make "Bharat" part of "India". He gave the example of using IT in taking orders, which shoemakers in Agra could use to design shoes. Prof. Sawhney welcomed this suggestion and mentioned personalised manufacture of garments as one other possibility by taking advantage of labour intensive economies of scale.

* Another respondent wanted Prof. Sawhney to share his ideas with Sam Pitroda, Chairman of the Knowledge Commission. He also wanted a triangular approach that involved policy-makers, entrepreneurs and investors. Discussions should go beyond such annual events.

* A crucial response also came from a delegate from Singapore who felt that the maritime sector was a key sector, which had to be nurtured. The economic clout of the Indian diaspora in some countries needed to be translated into political clout, which, he said, to some extent was already evident.

Secretary Krishna Kumar, at the end of the session, assured the gathering that the concerns of the delegates would be addressed in the future.