Exim Matters: On Diwali day, let us look at the brighter aspects

Today is Diwali, also known as Deepavali, the festival of lights that celebrates victory of light over darkness, good over evil, and knowledge over ignorance. It is the day to be happy and spread cheer. So, let me focus on positive developments in the last few weeks.

 

For me, the most heart-warming story is the success of Zoho, a firm based in Tenkasi, Tamil Nadu, in rolling out its information technology (IT) products. The firm, established almost three decades back, started getting a lot of attention when it introduced a social media platform ‘Arattai’ a few weeks back. Since then, its co-founder and chief scientist Sridhar Vembu has given many interviews explaining his journey, philosophy, vision, achievements, and plans.

Zoho’s story is inspiring because it is probably the first Indian IT company to develop 55 off-the-shelf products and sell in more than 150 countries. I have no doubt that Zoho’s story will inspire many more entrepreneurs to aim at becoming global players in their chosen fields.

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The second good news for me is that the leading IT company Google will invest $15 billion over the next five years to set up an artificial intelligence (AI) data centre at Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh, in what would be its biggest investment yet in the country.

 

The tech giant will partner with the Adani Group and Airtel to build the infrastructure for the project, which also includes the construction of a new international subsea gateway. The advent of AI in many walks of our life is the third encouraging development for me.

 

The World Trade Report 2025 released by the World Trade Organisation last month says that AI is beginning to reshape the global economy and can boost trade by 40 per cent by 2040 through productivity gains and lower trade costs, if right policies are put in place to bridge the digital divide, invest in workforce skills and maintain an open and predictable trade environment.

India has developed enough capabilities to harness AI and improve all-round productivity. That can have a great multiplier effect, especially in improving our competitiveness.

 

The fourth encouraging trend is that many multinational corporations are setting up global capability centres in India to provide services across the world using the talent pool available here.

 

Another promising development is the setting up of many facilities to manufacture high-end semi-conductors and recycle electronic waste to produce rare-earth metals.

 

While most of the progress in the hi-tech field is driven by private enterprises, the central and state governments are also playing important roles by subsidising certain activities and facilitating the others. Prudent macroeconomic policies of the governments have led to lower fiscal deficits and inflation rates. Our central bank

has cut the interest rates, infused more liquidity and eased the norms for external commercial borrowings and lending by banks. The cuts in income tax rates and goods and services tax rates on many items have lifted consumer sentiments and may revive private investment.

The global trading environment may improve in the coming months. These are only some of the positive aspects of the economy.

 

More can be added. There are some discouraging aspects also. But I don’t want to dwell on them today. For now, let us celebrate the brighter aspects and on that note, let me wish you all a Happy Diwali.

 

Email : tncrajagopalan@gmail.com