Chennai, Jan 8 The industry must be a commitment to social responsibility and environmental and competitiveness, the chairman and managing director of TVS Motor Company Ltd, Mr. Venu Srinivasan, said.

Enterprises should play an active role in the social milieu. This would be the key to the economic development of India, which is a melting pot of different cultures. No segment of society can be a laissez-faire attitude of political developments or simply another segment of the debt, he said.

The degradation of the environment should be another area of concern awareness of the need to arrest the deterioration. Wars of water could become reality if natural resources are exploited besides, he added.

After him such commitments should be an integral part of the value that help a team with a common goal. India should be compatible with a view of the background issues “bruising and brutal competition authorities, the faces in the international arena.

He said that companies should focus on developing excellence in their fields, trying with a clear strategy, which is crucial, because the only character position in the field of marketing. Companies fail despite a good product, because others have maybe better. To achieve these objectives the level of excellence in human resources and training is essential.

Companies should try to conserve and learn from the experience. There are too few companies in India have achieved excellence and as such are most needed, he said.

Mr. Srinivasan, managing the graduation ceremony of the second part of the cycle post-diploma in management, the Institute of Finance Management and Research here on Wednesday.

Kolkata, Jan. 20: The London School of Economics (LSE) is the preparation of masters with Indian universities, the director Howard Davies, said today. Took address journalists on the sidelines of the CII Partnership Summit here Davies, the LSE said in an interview with a number of Indian universities in this regard.

Davies also said LSE strengthens its financial support for students from developing countries like India. The LSE has already five million pounds for the care of the body of students from abroad, but India has its office in search of service providers, and financial institutions that provide loans for the study students.

”The students who are studying at LSE easily find jobs and money to pay off in the shortest possible time. Similarly, we are working on the development of links with several academic institutions in India, like the Delhi School of Economics, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Presidency College, St. Stephen’s College, College and the Jawaharlal Nehru University of Mumbai,’’said Davies.

The most popular courses in the context of India, he added, it is the Masters of Public Administration (MPA), and a “media curriculum, which may lead to a tie-up with a Indian University.

Areas of interest Davies in the context of the research is the economic development of India, financial markets and the banking sector. ”I am RBI meeting, the governor, and we are a seminar with the University of Mumbai on the future of central banks,”he said.

On the global economic scenario, Davies predicts a benign tumor, the environment, projected growth in the United States of 3-4 per cent, China has increased by nearly 10 percent and the European Union, almost 2 percent. With inflation under control, things might well for India, he suspected. He added that the boom of the Indian population was sustainable market share for at least the next two years.

Following is the text of Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh’s address at the inauguration of Infosys Leadership Institute in Mysore (Karnataka), today:

“I am extremely delighted to be here today. I have been an ardent admirer of the outstanding work being done at infosys under the inspiring leadership of both Dr. Narayana Murthy and Dr. Nandan Nilekani. Dr. Narayana Murthi has become a national icon, a global brand name, a source of great inspiration for young entrepreneurs and a role model for CEOs worldwide. You must all be truly proud to be working under the leadership of such inspiring men. Infosys has set a new benchmark in entrepreneurship, in corporate governance, in intellectual productivity and has lived upto the Gandhian notion of “simple living and high thinking”.

Before I proceed with the rest of my speech, I would first like to commend the role played by our IT industry and IT professionals in brining India on to the world map and being counted as one of the knowledge powers of the world. This is not an achievement which came about overnight. This is the result of years of investment, enterprise and hard work – by individuals, by academic institutions, by enterprises such as Infosys and to some extent, by the Government. When I took over as the Finance Minister, the country was passing through the most acute financial crisis ever in its history and there was a worry about the economic prospects of India. Just a decade later, it was heartening to see that outsourcing of jobs to India was one of the hottest topics in the US election debates. The rise of India as an economic power, particularly as an IT power, figures in the discourse of all seminars, conferences and writings on the subject. Whereas the economic development of India has been multifaceted, the role of IT in breaking traditional mindsets about India’s capabilities, its ability to make world class products and to compete on an equal footing, is remarkable and it is probably the single biggest reasons for India occupying so much “Mind Space” among the investment community in the world. I salute the entire IT community for its contribution to the success of India in this regard.

I am particularly pleased to be here in this historic city of Mysore to inaugurate the Infosys Leadership Institute, because “leadership” is what Infosys has been all about. One cannot but be moved and inspired by the story of Infosys. It is not just a classic “rags to riches” story of a company that grew from $250 to $12.5 billion. The media has of course celebrated that aspect of wealth creation by Infosys. What truly inspires me is the manner in which a group of educated and talented young men have been able to convert ideas into products, jobs and incomes. In so doing, they have given hope to a new generation and placed India on the world map in a new area of business activity and Intellectual creativity. What is equally important is that the Infosys experience has inspired many others such as, Hyderabad, Chennai, Pune and Gurgaon to follow suit.

Infosys also symbolizes the new phase of confident globalisation of Indian enterprise. When we launched economic liberalisation in 1991 there were many skeptics who wondered whether the opening up of the economy would not result in de-industrialisation and the so-called return of the “East India Company”. The experience of the past decade and a half shows that Indian enterprise has risen to the challenge and proved that it is indeed globally competitive. Our share of world exports has gone up, no down. If services exports are properly accounted for it can be shown that in the past decade our export performance has been even more remarkable.

Today there are many other enterprises like Infosys that have been able to retain talent at home in India so that we Indians can live here and yet be part of the global economy. In the past talented Indians had to migrate to the developed West in search of challenges commensurate with their skills and training. After 1991 we have succeeded in creating at home an environment conducive to the realization of the potential of such talented Indians. It is interesting to see that the words ‘Brain Drain’ now often refer to people from the West coming to India in search of careers.

However, I must point out that a country as large as ours cannot make do with just a few enterprises such as Infosys. We need scores of such centres of excellence. I commit our government to creating a conducive environment at home that will enable more and more Indians to create many more enterprises which will dominate the global stage with their skills, talent and products.

India has to be more economically engaged with the world. We must equip ourselves better to deal with the challenges of globalisation and take advantages of its opportunities. We should work for an India that is more closely integrated with its wider neighbourhood, an India that is an active participant in a new Asian Economic Community, an India that is more open to the free flow of goods and services and can export goods and services competitively to all corners of the world. Ours has been a trading nation since the dawn of civilization. The people of this country have travelled far and wide for thousands of years as teachers and traders. India must be so engaged with the world once again.

This requires greater investment in human capabilities and physical infrastructure. This requires better training at all levels of the knowledge pyramid. From the base of elementary education to the apex of advanced research. Business enterprise in our country must also invest in science and technology development and make more and better use of modern science and technology in business activity.

This increased participation in the world economy offers both new opportunities and poses new challenges. Our Government will invest in the creation of capabilities that enable our people to make use of the opportunities. Equally important, our Government will invest in protecting such people who may not be equipped to deal with the challenges of globalisation. Globalisation has to be a positive sum game and not a zero sum game. If there are any losers, it will be our obligation to provide a safety net that will enable them to deal with the challenge.

I believe the twin responsibilities of Government are, on the one hand, to create an environment conducive to the flowering of private enterprise and individual creativity; and, on the other hand, to take care of those who are marginalized by the development process and empower them with capabilities that enable them to become productive citizens of our society.

Governments are also required to regulate business activity but in an ideal world such regulation must, as far as possible, be self-regulation. This is where corporate responsibility becomes so important. If each and every stakeholder in society functions within the boundaries of law and decency and if we adhere to the rules and regulations of a modern market economy, then Government will have no reason to intervene, regulate or control economic and social life. Once there is such intervention, there is always the risk of its misuse. Infosys has set an example of corporate governance and corporate social responsibility which is a role model for its peers. In commend you for this achievement. I do sincerely hope that all our business leaders adopt the code of corporate governance that you have followed so that the basis for governmental intervention in business activity is taken away. I am not surprised by the number of awards that Infosys has received for good governance and for its corporate management practices. Your voluntary adherence to global best practice disclosure norms and to financial transparency is model behaviour that other Indian firms must imitate.

I hope the Infosys Leadership Institute will be able to help other enterprises follow the path set by you and create the human capabilities required for us to face the challenge of globalisation. India has more than 250 Universities, and may more R&D units, and engineering colleges. It has the world’s largest chain of publicly funded R&D institutions. On an average, more than 3,50,000 engineers and 5,000 Ph.D. scholars graduate from our Universities and Colleges every year. With such a vast pool of qualified, English-speaking scientific and technical manpower, India must be a larger base of research and development activity. We should be able to attract global investment into R&D activity at home. I do think we should put in place the required legal and physical infrastructure that can attract more foreign investment in R&D activity in India. I also intend to establish a Knowledge Commission in the next few months, a Commission headed by a dynamic individual and staffed by committed youngsters, to exploit the latent potential of our knowledge network and leverage it to make India the ‘Knowledge Engine’ of the world. We will aim to be the default choice for all knowledge based activity – a role India has been known for centuries.

It is our endeavour to make India a major player in IT and IT enabled services. Apart from being leaders in software, we must also invest in hardware. Our Government is giving a major thrust to convergence of technologies to broadband connectivity, next generation communications and to e-enabling government at all levels. We are equally committed to bridging the digital divide and to development content and connectivity for rural areas. This requires commitment of both financial and intellectual resources to relevant software applications and to development of local content in Indian languages. I hope Infosys takes the initiative in this regard too.

The Government of India has enacted the IT Act and also issued guidelines for State Wide Area Networks (SWAN) and for e-governance at the Block level. Recently, the National Broadband Policy has also been announced. Broadband would also support interactive education, health and other R&D activities in the country. I am happy that prominent chip companies like Texas Instruments, Motorola, Intel, ST Micro Systems and Cadence Design Systems have all set up their development research centres in India and are fast expanding their operations here. It is also encouraging to see more than 100 multinational companies including GE, Hewlett-Packard, Motorola, Honeywell and Intel, set up research centres here. Several leading global enterprises are eager to build innovation platforms through multi-sourcing of innovations in India. All of this activity helps strengthen our knowledge capabilities and also generate employment.

The service sector has been the most dynamic sector of the Indian economy. Not only has it been growing much faster than the other sectors, but has enabled the Indian economy to be less dependent on the vagaries of the monsoon. It has also been one of the most important contributors to the growth of our trade. The sector, has received far less attention than the manufacturing sector in the past. If we have to have all round development, we need to ensure that enough employment opportunities are created outside agriculture so that the employment profile of our country shifts away from agriculture. This requires a much faster growth of the service sector, not only domestically but also in trade. My Government is committed to create an environment which facilitates the rapid growth of the service sector. This would require the establishment of adequate human resources capabilities, appropriate certification and standard serving institutions, removal of infrastructural and organisational bottlenecks and creating a global awareness of India as a service brand. My Government will ensure that not only will this happen but will happen in a manner that all regions ofthe country benefit from an explosion in services.