Prof. Prahlad, while addressing faculty members and students of NMIMS and other distinguished academicians, corporate executives and members of CII and Yi, emphasized on acquiring Economic Strength, Technological Vitality and Moral Leadership of the country. He said that “India has a potential to lead the world in 2022 with its predicted largest pool of manpower consisting of 200 million college graduates and 500 million trained and skilled workforce. It could be home for at least 30 of the Fortune 100 companies of the world and generate over 10% of the world trade, by nurturing a vibrant renaissance of world-class contemporary art, science, research and education could have at least 10 Nobel Prize Winners. This is possible in next fifteen years provided leaders focus on this goal as a priority.”

He emphasized that this position is possible only when India works on all three fronts- economic growth, technology development & moral leadership.

He said that “As a country, India must have high and shared aspirations like it had in 1929 when the leaders of the then Congress party declared their ambition as Poorna Swaraj. Since then, India has never had a national aspiration which every Indian could share.”

Prof. Prahlad, while speaking about his vision India@75, also shared the key drivers of the developmental context for India to achieve the above goal in next 15 years. They relate not to abject poverty but income inequality, changing life styles, urbanization and emergence of universal aspirations, a dramatic change in price-performance relationships, economic development and ecological crisis and finally the role of governance and the rule of law.

Elaborating these key areas, he said that India has reduced abject poverty dramatically during last decade. However, a more difficult problem will emerge in its place. An important consequence of rapid economic development and globalization of the economy are the lags and asymmetries in the benefit results. Some sections of society will benefit and some will lag behind. These asymmetries will create multiple new divides in society - divides between educated and the uneducated, the urban and rural populations, between regions of the country as well as between ethnic groups. As a consequence, income inequality will emerge as a source of social tensions.

When people come to the cities, their aspirations change dramatically. They look at the rich as a benchmark. Their income may not change as a rapidly as their aspirations change. Therefore, it is the lag between increasing aspirations and incomes that can fulfill those aspirations can lead to a significant increase in social unrest.

With the changing life styles of poor class and emergence as consumers has altered the Price-Performance envelop dramatically. This increasing capacity to create life style equality can provide antidote to increasing income inequality. This trend is likely to be further supported by the changing nature of high technology markets around the world.

The rate of the cost/unit of functionality is changing in high technology implies that the poor can afford products and services incorporating the latest technology. The consequence of this rise in affordability is going to create explosive growth in consumption. This huge market opportunity will also have significant implications to the environment and the demands it will put on it.

The current development models for energy, water, packaging, waste per capita are inappropriate and we have to develop fundamentally new ideas. We have to find better use of resources and support new innovations in this area for uninterrupted inclusive growth with ecological sensitivity.

Talking about Focus on Governance, Prof. Prahlad explained the relationship between country’s human development index and the quality of governance, he said that a nation does not get rich first and then become less corrupt. A nation becomes less corrupt before it gets rich. The explicit, quantifiable price we are paying for corruption and the neglect of human resources in the country is staggering and should be the focus of national debate.

Prof. C K Prahlad picked eight faculty members from NMIMS as his vision ambassadors, who will create a multiplier effect oh his vision India@75, create excitement and a movement amongst people in the state. The theme proposed especially for the youth is Play For India@75, here they will be motivated to play matches against corruption, creating a greener city etc. The vision ambassadors will play an “aspirational role” and facilitate India’s transformation to a global leader by 2022. While speaking to faculty members, he spoke about emerging issues in India and the need for research.

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About Prof. C.K. Prahalad

C.K. Prahalad, the Paul and Ruth McCracken Distinguished University Professor at the Ross School of Business, University of Michigan, specializes in corporate strategy. His books include Multinational Mission: Balancing Local Demands and Global Vision (1987), coauthored with Yves Doz, Competing for the Future (1994), co-authored with Gary Hamel and printed in fourteen languages, and named the Best Selling Business Book of the Year in 1994. The Future of Competition: Co-Creating Unique Value with Customers (2004) (coauthored with Venkatram Ramaswamy), and translated into twelve languages. Business Week described the book as “provocative” and “an important book full of disruptive ideas”.

The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid: Eradicating Poverty through Profit (2004). The book was selected as one of the best books of the year 2004 by The Economist, Fast Company and Amazon.com.

He is also the author of numerous award-winning articles. Harvard Business Review awarded him McKinsey Prizes for: “The End of Corporate Imperialism”, co-authored with Kenneth Lieberthal (1998); “The Core Competence of the Corporation”, co-authored with Gary Hamel (1990), and “Strategic Intent”, also co-authored with Gary Hamel (1989); “Weak Signals vs. Strong Paradigms”, published in the Journal of Marketing Research (1995), was awarded the 1997 ANBAR Electronic Citation of Excellence; “The Dominant Logic: A New Linkage between Diversity and Performance (1986), co-authored with Richard Bettis, was selected the Best Article published in the Strategic Management Journal for the period 1980-88; “The Role of Core Competencies in the Corporation” (1993) received the 1994 Maurice Holland Award as the Best Paper published in Research Technology Management in 1993; “A Strategy for Growth: The Role of Core Competence in the Corporation” won the European Foundation for Management Award in 1993.

He has been honored for his contributions with a Life Time Achievement Award by the Ross School of Business. He received honorary doctorates from the University of London (Economics), Stevens Institute of Technology (Engineering) and University of Abertay, Dundee (Business). He was a member of the UN Blue Ribbon Commission on Private Sector and Development.

A prominent world-class figure, Professor Prahalad has consulted with the top management of many of the world’s foremost companies. He serves on the Board of Directors of NCR Corporation, Hindustan Lever Limited and the World Resources Institute. He is the Chairman and Founder of The Next.

About SVKM’s NMIMS University

Established in 1981, as a Management Institute, NMIMS has now transformed itself into a University, with 8 Schools, over 150 full-time faculty members, 42000 books and over 2500 students enrolling every year, transforming from an Institute of single management faculty to a University with many faculty areas. The University is also transforming from a Teaching Institute to Research-Consultancy-Training & Teaching Institute.

NMIMS has taken many new academic initiatives under various Schools like

• School of business Management
• Mukesh Patel School of technology Management & Engineering
• School of Pharmacy & Technology Management
• Balwant Sheth School of Architecture
• School of Commerce
• School of Science
• School of Distance Learning
• Institute of Intellectual Property Studies

Number of innovative Graduate, Post Graduate and Doctorate level programs, meeting the Industry/Business requirement under each school.

Achievements:

• Golden Pecock Award for innovation 2006 & 2007
• BMA Best Management Institute of the Year Award 2004-05 & 2006-07
• BMA Best teacher of Management of the Year Award 2004-05 & 2005-06
• Dr. J J Irani Award for Best Management Institute 2005
• Gurukuljyoti Award for Excellence in Education 2006
• The National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) has accredited an ‘A’ grade with a score between 85-90%.
• Ranked amongst top 10 B-School in Business Today- Nielsen Best B-School Survey 2007 and Outlook-C fore Best B-School Survey 2007
• Ranked amongst Super League B-School in AIMA-Indian Management Best B-School Survey 2007.

NMIMS also be launching Off-Campus Centres at Shirpur, Hyderabad, Bangluru soon.

For further details please visit www.nmims.edu