FM asks media to go beyond corporate India

Mumbai, Oct 17: Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram has exhorted the media to go beyond the corporate India so as to reflect the true image of the growing economy.

Launching the inaugural issue of Harvard Business Review (HBR) South Asia here last evening, the Minister said: ''In many ways we are developing our own model of business and that may be in the forms like agriculture, self-employment, low-end of service industry and even those companies that were unlisted so far.'' Defining the yardstick for one of the fastest growing economies like India, he said that things like tax revenue captiure, the employment figure as shown by the companies must be taken into account rather than going by the performance shown by Nifty or Sensex.

An alumni of Harvard Business School, Mr Chidambaram said that let one not be mesmerised by the show at Nifty or Sensex as they cannot be the true indicators of the Indian market. However, the performance shown by the corporate India was, he added.

The launch marked the 12th edition of the one of the world's most influential business management magazine, which will be sold and distributed in South Asian countries like India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, Myanmar and Bhutan. The magazine will be priced at Rs 750 in India whose English-language and translated editions reach nearly half a million readers worldwide.

The magazine will be distributed by the Living Media India Ltd, which publishes its weekly magazine India Today and owns the private news channel Aaj Tak.

Emphasising the relevance of HBR for Indian business leaders, India Today Group Editor-in-Chief of Aroon Purie said that India was well on the way to becoming one of the world's biggest economies and the Indian businesses had been making their mark in the global markets by acquiring companies or emerging as the major players.

There was no better time than this to launch the world's most influential business management magazine in India.

Speaking on the occasion, HBR Editor and Managing Director Thomas A Stewart termed India as the second fastest growing economy and home to some of the world's most dynamic companies. It was important for HBR to be on the ground in India as her contributions to world business and management thinking increase, he added.

Later, moderating a panel discussion on ''Building emerging giants'', Mr Stewart said that India is a country of great scholars whose contributions at some of the world's renowned business management schools like Harvard, Kelloggs, London School of Economics were unequal.

He predicted that 200 years from now, the history of India and China was going to be the history of the industrial revolution in the world.

Significant among those that participated in the panel discussion included Adi Godrej (chairman, Godrej Group), Aditya Puri (MD and Whole Time Director of HDFC Bank), Naina Lal Kidwai (CEO, HSBC India), Malvinder Singh (CEO&MD, Ranbaxy), Ravi Kant (CEO&MD, Tata Motors) and Nirmalya Kumar who teaches at the London Business School.

UNI