Tata Sons executive chairman N. Chandrasekaran said on Thursday that India is in a remarkable position and best placed towards transition in energy and other areas.
“If you take energy transition, probably we are the only country which is going to be investing in all these new energies like solar, hydrogen, wind...,” he said, speaking at an event to mark the 45th anniversary of PKF Sridhar & Santhanam LLP, a Chennai-based auditing firm.
“Every other economy has to add new energy to replace coal, which is tougher. So, for us, it is going to be an economic opportunity, a growth opportunity, and it will only accelerate and India will surpass everyone, irrespective of the deadlines,” he said.
As for electric vehicles, Mr. Chandrasekaran said, “I can only tell you that we will step on the gas. I fundamentally believe that the electric vehicle transition is here and it will happen faster than everyone is predicting. So many things, like charging infrastructure, has to happen, but they will happen.”
On artificial intelligence, he said mass adoption would happen only when factors such as processing power, storage cloud computing and mobile networks came together. He said there was a shift from predictive AI to generic AI and in future, it would move towards behavioural AI. On the AI front, he said India’s biggest strength is the digital infrastructure and the availability of young talent, and these would help leverage any new technology.
Mr. Chandrasekaran said, “We have a very strong opportunity to be part of global supply chain — be it electronics, defence, batteries, pharmaceuticals, among others.”
Mr. Chandrasekaran said the Tata Group is placing bets in all these areas. “We are in a period where we will have growth in domestic economy and export economy. We are going to have consumption-led growth and industrial growth. Despite arguments about what range our economic growth should be, the fundamental point is opportunities are huge.”
Santhanakrishnan S., chairman and managing partner, PKF Sridhar & Santhanam LLP, said that from the modest beginning in 1978, the firm had become an Indian multinational accounting firm and is working with marquee clients, including Tata Sons, Air India, Sanmar Group and Rane Group.
Ramakrishnan S., vice-chairman and managing partner, PKF Sridhar & Santhanam LLP, said the firm has a presence in 50 countries.
Reputed non-governmental organisations were felicitated at the event.
