While academic abilities remain integral, it is the work ethics that form the soul of the business.
Jamshyd Godrej
Every year, millions of vaccines get wasted due to inadequate storage facilities. India is a focus for us, as this is a very big challenge for the country as well as other countries across the globe.
Clubbing energy efficiency with renewable energy will give us the much-needed window to incubate the renewable energy sector, particularly large solar, without having to increase the price of electricity.
Infrastructure projects create a lot of demand for material, services and manpower. It is a chain reaction; if the infrastructure growth slows down, it will hit overall demand. The supply side has to keep increasing to sustain growth.
How do you actually green the supply chain is a challenge. The easier part is to do what we do; the difficult part is to get all your clients to long process will take time.
Economic growth can enable development if it is supplemented by public policies that encourage circulation of wealth, especially into crucial areas such as public healthcare and education.
Besides infrastructure, there is a huge opportunity in housing and urbanisation of cities - not only building new ones, but also renewing the infrastructure of old cities to make them more livable. This provides tremendous scope for large investments to fuel growth.
Our experience is that most entrepreneurs are able to attract debt, even for risky and early stage investments. There are investors who provide debt, but very few who fund through equity.
Sometimes, we use the term 'growth' as a number and sometimes as an abstraction, but the underlying implication is always that, if the country grows at a certain rate, at the end there will be a pot of gold for everyone.
As a group, we want to follow good and green strategy. Setting targets is one element of that. The second part is to design products which meet environmental goals.
The government is a very large constructor. They have schools, colleges, hospitals and courts, offices. We are trying to influence the public works department to adopt green buildings.
The government shouldn't step in at the first stage and create land banks. Industry should buy the land as much as they can, and if they get stuck, then the government should step in.
Our CII building in Hyderabad has zero discharge of water. Every drop of water is treated and reused.
We have to develop the whole system of early stage investors and a tax system around it. For every Google that has come on the scene, there are hundred entrepreneurs who never did.
Government should concentrate on building up infrastructure and skill development. Simplification of taxation is another important area.
Industry looks at research and development for energy efficiency, lowering material costs, so on and so forth.
The links have to be between universities, R&D institutes, and industry. If these linkages are in place, it will result in products that are useful for society. The government has to leverage the money it spends on R&D to help develop new products useful for industry.
I don't think manufacturing should be looked at independently. It is part of the economy. So, when the economy does well, and when there is investment, the sector does well.
When there is a situation where one does not see demand for a year or two, then capex is suspended. It will reverse only when the situation improves.
Godrej is committed towards improving quality of life in society.
In a company, you buy thousands of things. Every item you buy has its own footprint.
Typically, market-driven growth spawns urbanisation and leads to migration. Urban centres expand into humongous entities that thrive on an unending supply of energy.
