To help Indian leadership in global markets.
By Deepak Chitnis
WASHINGTON, DC: A Harvard University professor is one of the driving forces behind a brain trust that will establish an oversight committee to help drive up the competitiveness of India on the global stage.
Michael E. Porter, one of the most renowned instructors at the Harvard Business School (HBS), is also the chair of the HBS Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness. Along with the US Council of Competitiveness and the Institute for Competitiveness, Porter is the co-creator of the Indian Council on Competitiveness (ICC).
Based in Gurgaon, the ICC will be headed up by President and CEO Dr. Amit Kapoor, the Professor of Strategy and Industrial Economics at Management Development Institute and Honorary Chairman at the Institute for Competitiveness. It will be “an association of distinguished members from industry, academia, think tanks, media and researchers” with the agenda of “[driving] Indian competitiveness, productivity and leadership in world markets to raise the standard of living for all Indians.”
In a press release, Kapoor said “We are truly delighted to set up the India Council on Competitiveness in collaboration with the U.S. Council on Competitiveness,” further adding that the ICC “is being constituted in this country at a time when there is an imperative need for an apex body to drive the competitiveness of the country in the right direction.”
Membership onto the council will be by invitation only, extended to those who have “shown stewardship not only of their business interests but also of the communities in which they operate.” Some of the issues that are already on the table for the ICC include hot-button topics like enacting a multi-year program to improve Indian infrastructure, creating an international taxation system for multi-national corporations, and perhaps most importantly, easing immigration for high-skilled workers looking to leave India for the US.
Along with the ICC, HBS dean Nitin Nohria has also presented his idea for a US Competitiveness Project, which will utilize the school’s 7,000-odd alumni and an additional 1,000 members of the general public in order to optimize American industry on the global scale.
“I am so pleased to see India start up its own Competitiveness Council and bring together the ranks of its top industry, university leaders and other top delegates with the goal of focusing on India’s productivity and prosperity,” said Deborah L. Wince-Smith, President and CEO of the US Council on Competitiveness. “It will surely build strategic partnerships with both the public and private sectors; and it will ensure a stronger and more prosperous India in this ever-changing and competitive global environment.”