India must develop $100 billion companies to become global leader: Minister

Panaji, Dec 16 (IANS) India can take over the global economic leadership in the 21st century if it manages to create $100 billion companies across sectors on the home soil, Union Minister Jayant Sinha said here on Saturday.

"Because if we build companies of that scale, scope, and size, that's how we will achieve economic leadership. That is how we will create economic opportunities for all our people... these very large-scale companies can power entire sectors forward, create millions and millions of jobs and really drive our gross domestic product from 2.5 trillion dollars to 5 trillion dollars," he said.

Speaking at the ongoing India Ideas Conclave, the Minister of State for Civil Aviation said that India had the potential to become an entrepreneurial engine for six billion people across the world.

"And unless we build companies on that scale and scope, we are never going to achieve that leadership, we are never going to grow as quickly as we need to. Now when I start talking about 100 billion dollar market cap companies, I am sure all of you will be very skeptical," Sinha added.

The Minister said India needed to create its own Googles, Facebooks, Ali Babas and Tencents on its soil and said that TCS, with a market capitalisation of 70 to 75 billion dollars in a $250 billion IT-BPO sector, there is no reason why others should not follow suit.

"We do not need just one such sector, we need five-ten such sectors. We need large- scale companies like TCS to get created... so that we can make our economy genuinely a leader of the 21st century," he said.

Sinha said that instead of developing products and services for the first world, Indian companies should work out tailormade requirements of the domestic market, which can then be replicated in other markets in the developing world.

"We have to develop products and services for our people, because if we develop it for our people, the same products and services can be used in Indonesia and Vietnam, Egypt, Bolivia, Nigeria, Gabon. All of these places can use our products and services and it's already happening right now. So if we want to seize leadership in the 21st century, India has to become the entrepreneurial engine of the six billion people on the planet, he said.