Q1. As an entrepreneur, what are your views on the current condition of the Indian Economy? There have been a lot of talks about the Global Economic slowdown, and the recession going to hit India anytime next year. Do you think the impact of external factors such as the Oil crunch in the Middle East and the America-China Trade war will hamper India’s growth? Also, how will the startup companies be affected by this?
Murlidhar S – Firstly about the current economic recession…See, any economy goes through ups and downs. I don’t think we should be worried about the recession period too much. Even in the recession period, our growth is 5%, Europe is growing at zero percent, America is growing at around 1.8 percent. At 5 percent we are still a fast-growing economy so I don’t think we should be worried about the recession too much.
A lot of entrepreneurship that we do, the startup companies, only the bigger ones will be affected by the slowdown. The younger companies are not really affected. Because when you are very young, your size is very small, you are in the early stage of development…so you need not be worried about the recession too much. In fact, when we started MeritTrac in 2000, in 2001 the 9/11 happened and the world collapsed…but we did not worry about it. And in 2007-08, the Layman collapse happened. So, we were not Tata..we were not Infosys, that it affects our growth. We should not be worried about all this. Recession, maybe it’s a slight slowdown, maybe it’ll pick up in another next 3-4 quarters. But as an entrepreneur, if it is an early-stage company, I don’t think it affects too much.
Q2. Sir, You have been the Co-Founder and CEO of MeritTrac Services Pvt. Ltd, a leading education-based startup. Indian Education system has been criticized for a long period of time. In western countries, the education culture is very interactive and transformative. I was going through the question paper of a class VI student, the students were given a budget and were asked to allocate that budget to various amenities such as breakfast, clothing, etc. So, it gives them a precise idea of how to live with a particular budget. When will we imbibe this culture of holistic learning?
Murlidhar S – Yes, while the example of that school is correct regarding the creative question paper, it is not that in Indian Schools there is no creativity in learning. There are many schools in India that are doing a good job today. Yes, many average schools are also there but there are good numbers of institutions that are doing quality knowledge imparting. Having said that, there is a lot of work that has to be done in the Indian education sector and I am hoping that the new education policy will propel that wave of thinking. But all this cannot be done in one day. The example you talked about, only a small country like Finland, which has a very small population. Probably, half a population of Bangalore for the whole country, you can have a system which is perfect. If you go to America also, they have huge challenges in the education system. America for a decade has been struggling with the low quality of Mathematics and Science in schools. In fact, they had a big debate, a big question mark saying that the students of China and India are way ahead. Indian education has certain problems, we should solve them. But at the same time, we should not look at it as a big thing.
Q3. There was a survey done that showed that Asians and especially Indians are one of the most intelligent people, their conceptual mindset sets them apart. If we take into consideration the CEOs of companies like Google or Microsoft, both of them are Indians. What prompts them to go abroad? Do you think the migration rate has fallen from the early 2000s?
Ans. Since ’95 or ’96, the people going out are very little. In fact, if you see the IIT batch today, around 70 percent of students work in India. Whereas, in ’91 when I Graduated from IIT, around 95 percent of the students used to go abroad. All the MNC’s like IBM, Amazon, Microsoft, and Intel have very significant tech work in India. People who have gone and become big CEOs are the older generations. Today, many American School MBA’s want to come to India for the experience. You know in UK or America, if you are a rising CEO in a company, they will definitely post you to India or China for your growth because the global perspective is changing.. They know India is the future. For example, if you are a General Manager or a senior manager in Amazon, they will definitely post you to India because they want you to learn about India. India is a happening place, and the trend is to come back.
Q4. Also, because of the Indo-China Trade war, Companies are planning to move their headquarters to India. So, is it going to act as a catalyst for the Job sector?
Ans. Yes, absolutely. I completely agree. Look at some of the big companies like JP Morgan, Accenture and just look at the data of the past 10 years and compare the staff strength. You’ll be dramatically surprised by the number of people in India in their roles. I remember when we were in working with Microsoft in 2003, they started a global technology support center in India with 100 people, and now the number has risen to 5000 or 10000 people. Delloite in Hyderabad has around 60,000 people. And not just the big names, but many American companies which are best in their own space and not known to consumer parlance have been coming to India.
Q5. A survey says that in 5 years, the job profiles are completely going to change. The jobs that are existent now are completely going to be non-existent in the future due to dynamism and globalization. So what advice would you like to give to aspirant entrepreneurs and educational institutions to change their curriculums?
Ans. While it’s true that the jobs are changing, but jobs dramatically will not change. For example, when we began our career in 1991-92, computers had just started. People used to say that computers will take over, all jobs will go away. Today, even in banking where computerization is high, there is BPO, Back office…hundreds of people are employed. So, just the nature of work changes. Earlier the work you were doing manually, same work is done on a computer. Manpower will always be required. With AI coming in also, it takes over some jobs…but creates some jobs as well. Even in coding, some of the older technology is still there.
For example, marketing. Marketing has been there but digital marketing has come up. Now, to be a digital marketer, the basic skills of marketing are still relevant. People used to say the postman will go away, but the courier guy has come. The courier guy is just an upgraded version of a postman. They said with the advent of the internet, postmen will vanish. Postman has not vanished. Instead, he has more work now with the advent of E-Commerce. People said with technology HR jobs will go away. Has it gone away? Has the finance job gone away? But with the change of technology, you need to upgrade yourself with different jobs. Every area of work will have the technology. Even in a fashion technology course in NIFT, they are teaching AI.
“World is getting changed tomorrow”, everybody keeps saying. Don’t be fooled with that, I will not be fooled with that.