Brand India—Where Next? A Panel Discussion

Three large‐company top executives, a prominent journalist, and a representative of India's Ministry of Tourism discuss the country's recent transformation into “the world's fastest‐growing, free‐market democracy.” Much of the discussion concerns the recent accomplishments of Indian companies and executives, both those working inside the country and the many who have risen to prominence outside it. But the recent rise of India is more than a matter of economic success. Brand India is also, in the words of one panelist, “a soft brand as well as a hard brand… It is not only about efficiency, but about democracy and reverence for learning and the past, about art and architecture, and Bollywood and yoga, all of which have a cultural and even a spiritual dimension.” As for India's material progress, journalist Vir Sanghvi traces the origins of India's recent economic growth back to 1991, the year the country launched its ambitious program of economic liberalization. In this view, the Indian success story is one that begins with the opening up of markets, a gradual (though uneven) privatization of industry, and increased foreign investment. These are the main contributors to India's recent burst of economic growth, which in turn has generated the tax revenues necessary to fund large‐scale spending on education and healthcare. But whether the rate of economic growth and social progress accomplished by this combination of private‐sector growth and public spending can be maintained will depend heavily on a political process that has often been hostile to the ideas of free markets, privatization, and foreign investment.