India must transition from a service-based economy to a product-based economy: HCL co-founder

HCL co-founder Ajai Chowdhry on Friday said that India currently finds itself in a middle-income trap and the way forward is to transition from a service-based economy to a product-based economy.

Delivering the Founder’s Day lecture at the Raman Research Institute (RRI), Dr. Chowdhry, also the chairman of the mission governing board of the National Quantum Mission of India said, “60% of India’s GDP comes from services, while 90% of China’s GDP is from products and commodities.”

He also discussed the Research, Development, and Innovation (RDI) fund, which was announced by the government a few days ago to spur private investment in research.

He said that it has been challenging to push the private sector to get into R&D, and the RDI fund would drive the private sector in the country to think differently.

In this unipolar world, when every country is on its own, he stressed the need for creating our own products.

“When pushed to the corner, we really perform,” he said, giving examples of the COVID-19 lockdown and of Operation Sindoor, when India created its own products and technology to tackle the challenging times, without being dependent on external help.

“We need to realise we’re already in that corner today,” he said.

The lecture was organised in celebration of the 137th birth anniversary of C.V. Raman, the founder of the RRI.