Uday Kotak stresses institutionalised approach for Indian businesses aimed at global scale

Uday Kotak, founder and non-executive director of Kotak Mahindra Bank, on Friday (February 23) underscored the crucial role of an institutionalised approach for Indian businesses aspiring for global scale.

"I think it will require a very significant institutionalisation process of corporate India. There are groups and companies which have moving in that direction. But it would require a completely different mindset to get to that scale. And just an innovation," Kotak said.

During a panel discussion during the CNBC-TV18 EY Entrepreneur of the Year awards in Mumbai, he referenced the recent market movement in the US, exemplified by NVIDIA's stock price surge, to highlight the need for a mindset shift and strong institutions to achieve similar levels of growth and scale in India.

"You just need to look at what happened yesterday in the US, in one day. The movement in NVIDIA, stock price movement in NVIDIA, is larger than the largest group or the largest company's total market cap in India — that's the scale," Kotak said.

"If I've got to think about one country which does it better than anybody else, it's the United States," he affirmed, stressing the importance of free markets and strong institutions.

Sajjan Jindal, Chairperson of JSW Group, said he firmly believes in the prospect of Indian corporations becoming global leaders, stating, "Indian companies must become multinationals." He set a high bar for the nation's steel industry, positing, "I am in steel, can I be one of the leading steel companies in the world?"

"We just have to think that we want to be a global leader because we have to 'Think Big' — we have a very big market, one of the largest markets growing market. So we have to think big and think globally. And we have to think like we have to be number one in the world,"  Jindal added.

Sanjiv Bajaj, Chairperson and Managing Director of Bajaj Finserv, added a unique angle to this narrative, advocating for ethical business practices as the cornerstone of sustained global success. "Run your business ethically," he advises, "So you can go to sleep peacefully."