He urged IIMs and other B-schools in India to research the efforts were taken during the COVID period and document the transformation and innovations adopted for capacity building during the time. (Source: PIB) Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said that this decade is for the “building of new multinational companies within India” and that it was the perfect time for “India’s influence to spread across the world.” The Prime Minister was laying the foundation stone for the permanent campus of IIM-Sambalpur with Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik also present, and said that how the country managed the COVID pandemic should be a subject of “documentation and research.”
The Prime Minister said that previous decades saw a trend where multinational companies from “outside India” came to the country, and grew in India. “This decade, and this age, is of the building of new multinationals in India. That India’s influence spreads across the world, this is a perfect time for that. Today’s startups are tomorrow’s multinational companies. And which cities are these startups being built on? Those which we call in our language Tier 2, Tier 3 cities. Today the explosion of startups you get to see in those places,” he said.
Modi said, “I want to ask you, other IIM’s and other business management schools to study how the country worked during the Corona pandemic with technology and teamwork. How steps were taken for the protection of 130 crore people. Responsibilities were taken, jan bhagidari schemes were launched. On all these subjects, there should be documents, there should be research. How a country of 130 crore people innovated from time to time? How India expanded capacity and capability in a very short time? There is a very big lesson for management here. During COVID a permanent solution for PPE kits, mask, ventilators has been found.”
Modi said that from the “farm to the space sector” there were “unprecedented reforms” that left large scope for start ups. “For these new possibilities, you have to ready yourself. You have to join your career with India’s hopes and dreams. In the new decade, to give Brand India a new global recognition is responsibility for all of us, but especially for the youth…To increase the tourism potential of this area, the ideas and management skill of students will come of great use. Like this, Sambalpuri textiles are known in the country and the world. In the same way in this area so much handicrafts work is done. Silver filigree, wood work, brass work, our adivasi brothers and sisters too are very prodigious at this. For the students, to make Sambalpur vocal for local, is one of their prime responsibilities,” he said.
The Prime Minister said that the country’s IIM’s can “act as a bridge” between the Aatmanirbhar Bharat programme and international collaboration. “To make local global, all of you and your IIM colleagues have to find new and innovative solutions. I believe that our IIM’s, in the mission of aatmanirbharta, can work as a bridge between local produce and international collaboration. Your alumni network that is spread across corners of the world, can help a great deal in this. Until 2014, there were 13 IIM’s. Now there are 20 IIM’s. Such a big talent pool can give a lot of expansion to the Aatmanirbhar Abhiyan,” he said.
The Prime Minister also said that digital connectivity was set to transform the 21st century and that the concept of work from anywhere had turned the world into a global workplace. “Technology is removing geographical limitations. Air connectivity made the 20th century seamless, then digital connectivity is going to transform the 21st century. The concept of Work from Anywhere has turned the Global village into a global workplace. India has also brought in every necessary reform at a high speed in the past few months. It is our effort that not only should we walk with the times, but attempt to walk ahead of time,” the Prime Minister said.