Screw the mood, says Bajaj. Things are fine with India

Mumbai: So, what’s the mood like among Indian businessmen right now?

That was the question at one panel discussion at the India Leadership Forum organised by Nasscom in Mumbai.

Here’s how Rajiv Bajaj, managing director of Bajaj Auto, responded: “Screw the mood.”

It was a sentiment shared by the other panelists, Axis Bank CEO and MD Shikha Sharma and Infosys co-founder and executive co-chairman S Gopalkrishnan. They all thought that things were actually quite good in India. It was just the media, including social media, playing ‘bad guy’ by magnifying bad news because “bad news sells”, they said.

Why did they all think things were alright?

[caption id=“attachment_213114” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“These are interesting ideas, but to be fair, is the media really magnifying bad news - or highlighting what urgently needs to be fixed? AFP”] [/caption]

In Gopalkrishnan’s view, India’s 7 percent growth rate was something that very few countries in the world could aspire for. He added that the sour mood was caused more by situations outside the country, mainly the eurozone crisis rather than internal issues.

Shikha Sharma, meanwhile, thought that things were good because “Europe can’t get worse and the interest rate cycle in India had clearly peaked out”.

Neverthelss, they admitted that volatility was a given in today’s world because of increased global connectivity and intense competition. These volatility cycles, they added, had just become shorter and more intense. As Bajaj put it, “The noise was always there around us. It’s just that our ears have gotten sharper.”

These are interesting ideas, but to be fair, is the media really magnifying bad news - or highlighting what urgently needs to be fixed?

Look at what is happening in a variety of sectors -coal, power, energy, consumer durables, cars, etc. - and the picture does not look encouraging. Even foreign investors are growing skeptical of the India growth story and despite the recent rally in stock markets, experts believe long-term investors are not exactly banging down the doors to enter the country currently.

Bajaj did have one point though: he said it is important to go beyond the current mood and think about the long-term future. He cited a Harvard Business School study that said 75-90 percent of businesses fail in first few years, irrespective of how business sentiment is. The long term is what businesses should be concerned about, since it is hard-nosed business logic, not sentiment, that makes companies successful, he said.