LeveragingtheIndian diasporaforbusiness

PAWAN LUTHRA's address at the 'Engaging with India' conference organised by theA/BC and AFR

Consider, for a moment, yourown self- where you came from, where you livenow,che kindof work you do,how youdefine yourself.

You'requite a"mixedup"personreally, aren't you.

1 know. BecauseI am just as "m.ixed up" as you are.

Thatis the crux of my presentation today, celebratingour"mixed up" nature and seeinghow wecanput it tosome use.

Transnationalism

WhenI look around this room,I don't seeIndiansandAustralians,or fodianAustralians,or any other kindof hyphenatedAustralians.

Byvirtue of ourorigin andourwork, we are allreally "transnationals".\Y/e transcend thenational space as the referencepoint for our activities, and indeed,our identities.

\'(/eareconnected toseveralplaces at once. Our multi-sited livesinvolve interactions acrossborders.These exchanges may be physicaland/or economic,butcouldalsobe ideas, values andpractices.

The manynewmodesof communication, rapidtransport,and easy-ro-acce.ss trade.and-informationnetworks,have all strengthened otu:connections to twoor moreplaces,at anygiventime.

It's awonderfully enrichingframeof reference,in which we arecontributing lf anything, the term should nowbe ABCD, "America/Australia-born connected desi"I

(hopefullysignificantly!)to twoor more different ethnosystems.

' either herenor chere"is aphrase chatonce typified us as migrants,but not anymore(Hindispeakersmay know this as "11agbt11·k"nagb,1t kd').And noonereally uses tl1eterm''ABCD" anymore: "ArneticabornConfused Desi"or "Australia-born confuseddesi",,vhere"desi"is theIndian word for"Indian".

Tomy mindatleast, the ideaof such rransnationalismisnow even overtaking thatof multiculturalism.

Only recently,we allbecame acquainted witha brand new world figure, aPak.israniborn UK-resident, wholooks settobein che news over thenextfewyears. London

Mayor SadiqKhanis the new faceofa "mixed upworld" - letmenowrephrase chat as a"transformed" world - tl1at is setting awholenew agenda.

Last month,highrankingAustralian diplomatHarinder Sidhuofficially took upher newposition, HighCommissioner in NewDelhi. She becomes the second Indian-origin personinth.isoffice,after PeterVarghese not solongago.Ms Sidhu countsas hercontemporaries,an IndianoriginUS Ambassadorco India (Richard Verma) and anInd.ian-originCanadianHigh Commissioner Nadir Patel.

Their respective governments have, amongstotl1erqualities,leveraged their Ind.ianbackground to helpoil thewheels of diplomacy. In fact, NadirPatelhas said that he enjoys talkinginGujaratiwith Prime MinisterMod.i,adm.ittingthat beingof Indianbackground does give himan edge.

AsI interviewed HarinderSidhu onInd.ianLinkRadiorecently,she agreed."Thereis a genuine advantage in comingcoch.is posting with a readymade understandingof cross-cultural relationships," she rold me.

Astransnationals,diasporiccommunities comenot only with such "ready-made Lmderstanding"of two culmres,bur ahost of other strengthsthatcanhelpnudge along the bilateralequationin multiple ways.

Global Indians

TheIndiandiasporaisthelargestin the world.There's astaggering30 million of us, spread across215 countries.

Thinkof the"dias-power"of ir!

NarendraModi cert.'Uilly does.

Theastute Prime1tinisterof India (picturedright)hasplayed to thestrength of the Indiandiaspora likenone of his predecessorsever has.Hereachesout to theminhigh-voltage, massive-arena, theatre-style, sold-outevents.

Hismessage to the "NRis"as they are called in India,is thatthey are a"bra.in gain, not abra.indrain".

Hepraises themas part of Ind.ia's "soft power", and it is clear that for him, they are aconsolidatedand viable vote-bank, and as TheHi11dusa.id,"aredeemable, interest-bearing, asset thatis merely parked offshore."

Back inIndia, your poster-boy diasporans may wellbe Sat:ya Nadella,or Russell Peters, or Salman Rushdie. Outside of India,the quintessential Indian is theITemployee, the taxi driver, the cornershop owner, the motel operatoror the petrolpumpowner.

Of course,both categories of "Indians" are making theirmark in theirown way. The Indian commun.icyin theUS is the most influential of allthe diasporic communities.

TherearemorefodianCEOs thanany othernationality afterAmericans,inthe S&P500compao.ies,finds astudy by Egon Zehnder.

Timemagazineoncetermed CEOs as India's leading'export',claiming that thesubcontinentcouldwell be'the ideal traininggroundfor global bosses'.

Tndia-bornCEOsSatyaNadella (i\ficrosoft),IndiraNooyi (PepsiCo), Sundar Picha.i(Google,right), and Anshu Jain(DeutscheBank),are someof the personal.ities inspiringa whole generation ofMBAandIT sn1dents in Ind.ia.

Ontheother extremefromthese highend executives, youalso have smaller-scale success stories such as thePatel commmuty wlucb dominates the budgetmotel market. Therehave been successful forays in state and national level politics aswell (Bobby

Jindal,Nikki Haley).

Acrosstheglobe,there aremany other names from theIndian diaspora [hathave spurredyoung people in [hehomeland into new careers,inthe sciences,space exploration,creativewriting, film-making, contemporarrart, andin many ocher fields.

InAuscralia,Indiansettlement beganin the 1800s.

The first Indians arrived with theBritish whohadbeen livinginIndia. Fromthe 1860s,Sikhsand 'Afghans' wererecruired as workersinoutbackAustralia (pictured below). Many 'Afghans' actually came from lndia (as well as Iran,Egypt andTurkey). They workedas cameleers tooperatecamel trains as 'pioneersof theinland'.

Itwasbusiness migration charbrought the secondlotof Indians over.They travelled therowns selling food andother wares outof cares

The 1881 census records 998people who wereborninIndia, but this bad grownco over 1700 by 1891.

Todaythereareover450,000peopleof Indianorigrnhere,spreadacrossvarious industries. While there wasa waveof medicalprofessionals who migra[ed here in tl1e I970s and'80s,tl1ere arenowIndians in almost every fieldof endeavour,from cornershop owners ro wiiversityacademics, fromITprofessionalsm lawyers,even film makersand Booker Prize winners.

A special skill set

Now what is it about che migrant experiencechatpropelspeopleto get ahead (mind you,this is the desire for getting aheadwhichbusinessesneed ro tap into for tl1eirown growth).

As migrants,weare used tochange - perhaps even drawnmit.Weare risk takers, which is whatbroughtmanyof us to Australia, givingupthecomfortof our solid support scructures.Weareflexible, innovativeand constantly seeking to reinventourselves,and ro find new waysin everything wedo.

This set of personality craits,coupled witl1corporate success inmany instances, can seeus become development partners witl1thehomecountryinsignificant ways,inareas such as business creation, tradeLinks,investments,remittances, skills circulation,exchangeof ea'l::periences and even impacts on social and cultural roles of menandwomeninthehome society.

So wheretofrom here?

TheIndian diaspora will do wellmlearn fromthetwoochermajordiasporas- the Jewish and theChinese, in tl1eir attempts at engagmgwiththeirrespectivehomelands.

TheJewish diaspora is considered the most"classical,archetypalandmobilised diaspora"wim a greatsense of solidarity tliat has sustained over the years,and which bas exertedmuchcultural, social, economic andpolitical influence. lnan interesting trend we are seeing inrhediasporaof born ChinaandIndia, STEM(sciencetechnology engineeringand mar.hs) seemsto be theway ro go.Both governmentshavemade huge efforts m incentivize areturn-to-homebyscientists.

The Chinese diaspora is more Like the Indian,much morediverse within itself, the powerfulattachmentm the homecountry overridingregional differences. It is alsojust as widespread as ours, with students making upa large proportionof rneirnumbers roo. As theChinesegovernment Rexes its economicmuscles, ithassoughtquite successfully to establish closer economic and cultural ties.

ChinaandIndiahavepursued radically differentdevelopmentstrategies, wimIndia perhapspayinganeconomicpriceforits democracy,burithas beensaid,"There wouldhave beennoChineseeconomic niiraclewimout tl1e helpof theoverseas Chinese."

InChina,theremrn of scientists,in for example rbeir"ThousandTalent" program, has beencoupled with anoutpouring of uwestmenrby botl1 government and private industry. InIndia,collaborative research projects withuniversities abroad have flourished;Australiahasalsoparticipated extensively.

Astransnationals, how can the diaspora help?

Whilethediasporacanbeleveraged for business, tl1eir power can alsohelpinoilier areas:

1. Influencing governments \\("le've talked of 1vfodi reachingomto thediaspora, bur tl1e engagement wirn chediaspora really began witl1 RajivGandhi,tl1e first primeministerrorecognisethe growing cloutof thediaspora. His economic Liberalisationin me 1990s openedIndia like neverbefore.But thecreditfor ucilisingchediasporamost effectively mightactually sit withManmohanSingh, when the US-Indianuclear dealcame throughin2008.After he and George WBush first agreed on tl1e deal in 2005, America's India□community,oneof themost educatedand afAuent ethnic groupsthere,lobbied hard forCongress to pass the bill. Before this, the 1974 Pokhrannuclear tests, me 1998nuclear tests and theKargil conflict wereotl1er occasions duringwhich diasporan communities- evenroa smalle::-..'1:ent hereinAuscralia -were ab.le tolobby witl1their goverruuents.

2. Crisis response In meeconomiccrisis of tl1e 1990s (ata timewhen India was facingirs worst balance of payments crisis,its foreign reserves weredwindlrng andirwas about to defaultonits internationalpaymentobligations), the Indiandiaspora pulledits resources to help me country throughbondssuchas ResurgentIndia.

3. Bringing innewbusiness \'{lhen economic liberalisationin 1991 opened newbusiness opportunities,diaspora members in high tech development began cooutsource to India, oftenat low cost, providing technicalandmanagerial knowledge.

4. Importingbestpractices Diasporans rake best practicesof me rest of me world backhome. Nehru,Subhash ChandraBoseandVallabhBhaiPatel werealsodiasporansatonepoint and returned home armed witl1 tl1e specialisedexperiencemarhelped lndia win Independence fromBritish occupation.ManmohanSingh was at tbeLondo□Schoolof Economics prior tobecomingtheFinancei'vlinisterof India andopening up the economy. Personalities likeSam PitrodaandSabeer Bhatiacontributedgreatlyin thelaunch of IT as majorindustry. Many business schoolacademics fromoutside India continue ro tl1is day coadvise meIndian governmentonvariousissues.

Whichspecificplatformslend themselveseasilyto being leveraged by the diaspora?

Thediaspora can play a significantrole because tl1ey know

• \"Where thecusmmers are

• Howto deal witl1 the localculture

• And in terms theybothunderstand

Tourism,healthcare,financialand educationservicescan begoodplatforms.

Health Care: The diasporahas helped establish someof India'sleadinghospitals suchas Escorts,Apollo, PrasadEyeCare. areshTrehan forexample,wasaL ucknow lad whomovedto NewYork, worked tl1ere for anumberof years as acardiacsurgeon, and returned to lndiau1 thelate '80s to launch Escorts Hospitals.

Today,India'ssecondaryandtertiaryhealm careservicesnotoaly providecare,buralso addtohealmtourism.\XiithcheAustralian healtl1care system strugglingto keepupwith tl1edemandsof anagingpopulation,thiscan beaninterestingopportunity.

Science and technology:JuseasTaiwan and Israelhaveleveraged their diaspora to take advantageof highly trained experts and scientists u1fields such as IT,biotechnology andnanotechnogy,Indian-origin scientists canhelp develop India as anR &Dcenn·e.

Over tl1e past few years, the Indian community i.nAustraliahavebegun tomake memark in tbesciences.

University departmentssuch asMaterial Sciences and Nanotechnologyhave strong representationfromour community,Dr VeenaSal1ajwalla fromU SWhaving become the poster girl for women inSTEM in chis councry.

TndianLinknewspaperhasrecently been carryinga spateof articles reportingon scientificadvancesmadeby Indian-origin scientists in cancer research,dairy,crops,pest control, wildlifeconservationandtl1elike.

Education; Aninterestingexampleof how aworldclasseducationinstitution wasset upleveragingtl1eIndiandiaspora,isme IndianSchoolof BusinessinHyderabad. Launchedin1996byRajatGuptaandAnil Kumar(botl1 senior executivesatMcKinsey) incollaboration,\�thinternational business schools\X/hartonand Kellogg,roday it ranks 33rd inthe,vorldinrhe2015 Financial TimesGlobalfl.IBARankings.

Thediaspora wasusedtOfacilitate academicexchanges,collaborationand twinning arrangements between Indianand foreigninstimtions.

There areothermore basicways in which diaspora can helpin facilitating businessin their home counn-y:

Remittances; Theremittances from the Indiandiasporaareestimated at$70billion, the highest u1 the world. Remittancesare suchahugeindustrythat wehave largescale companies vyingfor the business -such asMoneyGram. (Andcreating,in theprocess,other rnterestingformsof cross-nationalreferences such as putting BollywoodbadshahShah Rukh Khan on the backsof Sydney buses!)

Tourism: Tourism is the4tl1 largest induscry in the world.When diaspora "return"home,connections arebuilt with thelocal economy.

Diasporans alsohelp bringrn tourism. Plenty of us cake omfriends back home for weddings or just showingtl1em ar0tmd. I've acted asmurisrguidemyself many times and havealsodevised elaborate itineraries for my Aussie friends.

While thebig playerswillinvolve themselves with major industry, the service sector in lndiais poised for stronggrowth which willhavefurtl1eropportunitieswitl1 the follow throughof CECA.

Lee'snorforgerthatir was the return home of one diaspo.ra personalitychatcrea[ed an independentbusiness environmentinIndia. MohandasKaramchandGandhileveraged hisknowledge fromoverseastO get Indiaits independence.

Fastforward69odd years,here weare, discussinghowroleverage theIndian diasporaforbusiness success\