A political start-up and its economic sense

Life has an uncanny way of achieving equilibrium. No matter where we choose to operate in the short term, we are brought back to the 'as it should be' at the end of each cycle. And here we are at the end of one such.

India has almost serendipitously found itself at the cusp of greatness thanks to the IT revolution and its impact on globalization. We've suddenly found an outlet to showcase our talent and profit from it thanks to the access we now have on the information super-highway. Our subsequent consumption on the back of our now higher incomes have made India one of the largest consumer markets in the world, a 300 million strong middle class with fairly decent sized pockets. But have we fully utilized the opportunity? My estimate - we're close to half of the potential that can be achieved.

More than 700 million people in India's villages are still to see the benefits of the economic upswing (yes- that seems a little distant now, but we're still better off than 10 years ago). Their growth has been stunted on account of isolation from the mainland and deprivation of basic amenities. We should have been more inclusive in taking the majority of the country along the path but we didn't, and now we are forced to do so if we are to progress any further from this point. This is the threshold and this is the opportunity for India Inc.

Imagine the potential of a domestic market of a billion consumers with decent sized pockets! Can you imagine the impact on retail, healthcare, housing, consumer staples, automobiles, financial services, commodities etc. The pie could be exponentially larger. The revolution can only begin by ensuring that people are able to afford decent housing, clean water, 3 meals a day and an education. Leave the rest to the human spirit.

This can't be achieved by the current leadership in the country. No way. We have an election in 3 months. Corporates financing their campaigns will lead to gaining certain sops for a specific industry but won't fuel the growth that could actually be achieved by increasing the overall market size. We need a new political class, one that has atleast half a conscience. I know how realistic this hope is, that's why I'm proposing that we choose an alternate route. A different political party.

The Confederation of Indian Industry.

There's enough of intellectual capital, financial muscle and advertising genius available here to win an election and to make a significant difference to the fortunes of our nation, and their own fortunes as well. There's never a wrong reason to do the right thing. There will be more bang for the taxpayer buck. More policy changes to suit long term and sustainable growth. And why would they want to do this?

The pie. Larger the pie, more the dough. Win- win.

There are other important reasons why this needs to happen now. We're fast becoming the largest workforce in the world, if we haven't already. The opportunity needs to be provided now. We're a young nation. We're more open to change than we have been before. And perhaps more importantly, global recession is forcing many countries to protect their own markets, though this is both short sighted and dangerous it may happen anyway. This makes it more important for Indian industry to do what it can to build a larger and stronger domestic market.

I have a few names to throw into the fray, I'm sure there are more that can be added to the list, some perhaps even from the current political lot. Manmohan Singh and a few others should join them.

Nandan Nilekani, KV Kamath, Deepak Parekh, Narayan Murthy, Ratan Tata, Sunil Mittal, Tulsi Tanti, Kiran Muzumdar Shaw...

Here's to governance by corporates. If we're not to miss the bus, 700 million Indians need to get on it...quickly.

Any venture capitalists listening?