LeveragingtheIndian diasporaforbusiness

PAWAN LUTHRA's address at the 'Engaging with India' conference organised by the A/BC andAFR

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

You'requite a "mixed up" personreally, aren'tyou.

1know.Because I am justas "m.ixed up" asyou are.

Thatis thecruxof my presentation today, celebratingour "mixed up" nature and seeinghow wecan put it tosomeuse.

Transnationalism

WhenIlookaroundthisroom,I don't seeIndiansandAustralians,or fodianAustralians,or any otherkindof hyphenatedAustralians.

By virtue of ourorigin andour work, we are all really "transnationals".\Y/e transcend thenational space as the reference point for our activities, and indeed,ouridentities.

\'(/eareconnectedtoseveralplaces atonce.Our multi-sited livesinvolve interactionsacrossborders.These exchangesmay be physical and/or economic,butcouldalsobe ideas, values andpractices

The many new modesof communication, rapidtransport,and easy-ro-acce.sstrade.and-informationnetworks,have all strengthenedotu:connections to twoor more places,at any giventime.

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

(hopefully significantly!) totwoor more different ethnosystems.

' either herenor chere"isa phrase chatonce typified us as migrants,but not anymore (Hindispeakers may know this as "11agbt11·k" nagb,1tkd').And noonereally usestl1eterm''ABCD" anymore: "ArneticabornConfusedDesi"or "Australia-born confuseddesi",,vhere "desi" is theIndian word for"Indian".

To my mindatleast, the ideaof such rransnationalismisnow even overtaking thatof multiculturalism.

Only recently,we allbecameacquainted witha brand new worldfigure, aPak.israniborn UK-resident,wholooks settobein chenewsoverthenextfew years. London

Mayor Sadiq Khan is the new faceof a "mixedupworld" -letmenowrephrase chat asa"transformed" world -tl1at is setting a whole new agenda.

Lastmonth,highrankingAustralian diplomat Harinder Sidhuofficially took up her new position, High Commissioner in New Delhi. She becomes the second Indian-origin personinth.isoffice,after PeterVarghesenot solongago. MsSidhu countsas hercontemporaries,an IndianoriginUS Ambassadorco India (Richard Verma) and anInd.ian-originCanadianHigh Commissioner Nadir Patel.

Theirrespectivegovernments have, amongstotl1erqualities,leveragedtheir Ind.ianbackground tohelpoil thewheels of diplomacy. In fact, NadirPatelhas said that he enjoystalkinginGujaratiwith Prime MinisterMod.i, adm.ittingthat beingof Indianbackgrounddoesgive him an edge.

AsI interviewed HarinderSidhu onInd.ianLinkRadiorecently,she agreed."Thereis a genuine advantage incomingcoch.ispostingwith areadymade understandingof cross-cultural relationships," she rold me.

As transnationals, diasporiccommunities comenot only withsuch"ready-made Lmderstanding"of twoculmres,bura host of otherstrengths thatcan helpnudge along the bilateralequationin multipleways.

Global Indians

TheIndiandiasporaisthelargest in the world.There's astaggering30million of us, spread across215countries.

Think of the"dias-power"of ir!

NarendraModi cert.'Uilly does

The astute Prime 1tinisterof India (picturedright) hasplayed to thestrength of the Indiandiaspora likenoneof his predecessorsever has.He reachesout totheminhigh-voltage, massive-arena, theatre-style, sold-outevents.

Hismessagetothe"NRis"as they are calledin India,is thatthey are a"bra.in gain, nota bra.in drain".

Hepraises themas part of Ind.ia's "soft power", anditisclear that for him, they are aconsolidatedand viablevote-bank, and as TheHi11dusa.id,"a redeemable, interest-bearing,assetthatis merely parked offshore."

Back in India, yourposter-boy diasporans may wellbe Sat:ya Nadella,or Russell Peters, orSalmanRushdie.Outside of India,the quintessentialIndianis theITemployee,the taxi driver, thecornershop owner, the motel operatoror the petrol pumpowner.

Of course,both categories of "Indians" are making theirmarkin theirown way.

The Indiancommun.icyin theUSis themostinfluentialof allthe diasporic communities.

There are morefodian CEOs than any othernationality afterAmericans,inthe S&P 500compao.ies,finds astudy by Egon Zehnder.

Timemagazineonce termedCEOs as India'sleading'export',claimingthat the subcontinent couldwell be'theideal traininggroundforglobal bosses'.

Tndia-bornCEOsSatyaNadella (i\ficrosoft),IndiraNooyi (PepsiCo), Sundar Picha.i (Google, right), andAnshu Jain (Deutsche Bank), are someof the personal.itiesinspiring a whole generation of MBAandITsn1dentsinInd.ia.

On theotherextreme from these highend executives, youalsohave smaller-scale success stories suchas thePatel commmuty wlucbdominates the budget motel market. There have beensuccessfulforays in state and national level politics aswell (Bobby

Jindal,Nikki Haley).

Acrosstheglobe,there are many other names from theIndian diaspora [hathave spurredyoungpeoplein [hehomeland into new careers,inthesciences,space exploration,creativewriting,film-making, contemporarrart,andin many ocherfields.

InAuscralia,Indiansettlement beganin the 1800s.

The first Indians arrived with theBritish who hadbeen livinginIndia.Fromthe 1860s, Sikhsand'Afghans' wererecruired as workersin outbackAustralia (pictured below). Many 'Afghans' actually came from lndia (aswellasIran,Egypt andTurkey). They workedascameleersto operatecamel trainsas 'pioneersof the inland'.

Itwasbusiness migrationcharbrought the second lot of Indians over.They travelledtherownsselling food andother wares outof cares

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

Today thereareover450,000peopleof Indian origrnhere,spreadacrossvarious industries.Whilethere wasa waveof medicalprofessionals who migra[edherein tl1e I970s and'80s,tl1ere arenowIndians in almost every fieldof endeavour,from cornershopownersro wiiversity academics, from IT professionalsmlawyers,even film makersandBooker Prize winners.

A special skillset

Now what is itabout che migrant experiencechat propels peopleto get ahead (mindyou,thisis the desire for getting aheadwhichbusinessesneedro tap into for tl1eir own growth).

Asmigrants,weareusedto change -perhaps even drawnmit.We are risk takers,which is whatbroughtmany of us to Australia, givingup the comfort of our solidsupport scructures. We areflexible, innovativeand constantly seekingto reinvent ourselves, androfindnew ways in everything wedo.

Thisset of personality craits,coupled witl1 corporate successinmany instances, can seeus become development partners witl1thehomecountry insignificant ways, in areas such asbusinesscreation, tradeLinks,investments,remittances,skills circulation,exchangeof ea'l::periences and even impacts on social and cultural roles of menand womenin thehome society.

So where tofrom here?

TheIndiandiaspora will do wellmlearn fromthe two ochermajordiasporas -the Jewishand theChinese, in tl1eir attempts at engagmg with their respectivehomelands.

TheJewishdiaspora is consideredthe most "classical,archetypalandmobilised diaspora" wim a greatsense of solidarity tliat has sustained over the years,andwhich basexertedmuchcultural,social,economic andpolitical influence.

The Chinese diaspora ismore Like the Indian,much more diverse within itself, the powerful attachment m the home country overridingregionaldifferences. It is also just as widespreadas ours, with students making upa large proportion of rneirnumbers roo. Asthe Chinesegovernment Rexes its economic muscles, ithassoughtquite successfully to establish closer economic andculturalties ln aninterestingtrend we areseeing in rhe diaspora of bornChinaandIndia, STEM(science technology engineeringand mar.hs) seems to be theway ro go.Both governments have made hugeefforts m incentivize a return-to-homebyscientists.

ChinaandIndia havepursued radically differentdevelopmentstrategies, wimIndia perhapspayinganeconomicpriceforits democracy,burithasbeensaid,"There wouldhave beenno Chinese economic niiraclewimouttl1ehelp of theoverseas Chinese."

InChina, theremrn of scientists,in for example rbeir "ThousandTalent" program, hasbeencoupled with anoutpouring of uwestmenrby botl1 government and private industry. InIndia,collaborative research projects with universities abroad have flourished;Australiahasalso participated extensively.

Astransnationals, how can the diaspora help?

Whilethediasporacanbeleveraged for business, tl1eir power can also help in oilier areas:

1. Influencing governments \\("le've talked of 1vfodi reachingomto thediaspora, bur tl1e engagementwirnchediaspora really began witl1 RajivGandhi,tl1efirst prime ministerrorecognisethegrowing clout of thediaspora. His economic Liberalisationinme 1990s openedIndia likeneverbefore.Butthecreditfor ucilisingchediasporamost effectively mightactually sit with ManmohanSingh, when the US-Indianuclear dealcame throughin2008.After he andGeorge WBushfirst agreed on tl1edealin 2005, America'sIndia□community,one of the mosteducatedandafAuentethnic groups there,lobbied hard forCongress to pass the bill. Before this, the 1974 Pokhrannuclear tests, me 1998nuclear tests andtheKargil conflict wereotl1er occasions duringwhich diasporan communities - evenroa smalle::-..'1:ent hereinAuscralia -were ab.le to lobby witl1 their goverruuents.

2. Crisis response In me economiccrisis of tl1e 1990s(ata time when 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 through bondssuch as ResurgentIndia.

3. Bringing in new business \'{lhen economic liberalisationin 1991 opened newbusinessopportunities,diaspora members inhigh tech development began cooutsourceto India, oftenat low cost, providingtechnical and managerial knowledge.

4. Importingbestpractices Diasporans rake best practices of merest of me world back home. Nehru,Subhash Chandra Bose andVallabhBhaiPatel werealsodiasporansat onepoint and returned home armed witl1 tl1e specialised experience marhelped lndia win Independence fromBritish occupation. ManmohanSinghwas at tbeLondo□ Schoolof Economics prior to becoming theFinancei'vlinister of India andopeningupthe economy. PersonalitieslikeSam PitrodaandSabeer Bhatiacontributedgreatly in thelaunch of IT as major industry. Many business schoolacademics from outside India continue ro tl1is day coadvise me Indian governmenton variousissues.

Which specific platforms lend themselveseasilyto being leveraged by the diaspora? Thediaspora can play a significantrole becausetl1ey know

• \"Where thecusmmers are

• Howto dealwitl1the local culture

• And in terms they bothunderstand

Tourism, health care,financial and educationservicescan be goodplatforms areshTrehan for example, wasaL ucknow lad who moved to NewYork, worked tl1ere for a number of years as acardiacsurgeon, andreturned to lndia u1thelate '80s to launch Escorts Hospitals.

Health Care: The diaspora has helped establish some of India's leading hospitals suchas Escorts,Apollo, PrasadEyeCare.

Today,India'ssecondaryandtertiary healm careservices notoaly provide care,buralso addto healmtourism.\XiithcheAustralian healtl1 care system strugglingto keepupwith tl1edemandsof anagingpopulation,thiscan beaninterestingopportunity.

Science and technology:JuseasTaiwan andIsraelhave leveraged their diaspora to take advantage of highly trained experts and scientists u1fields such asIT,biotechnology andnanotechnogy,Indian-origin scientists canhelp develop India asanR &Dcenn·e.

Over tl1e past few years, the Indian community i.nAustralia havebegun to make me mark in tbesciences.

University departmentssuch as Material Sciences andNanotechnology have strong representation fromour community,Dr VeenaSal1ajwalla fromU SW having become theposter girl for women inSTEM in chis councry.

TndianLinknewspaperhasrecently been carryinga spate of articles reporting on scientific advances made by Indian-origin scientists in cancer research, dairy,crops, pest control, wildlifeconservationandtl1elike.

Education; Aninterestingexampleof how aworldclasseducationinstitution wasset upleveragingtl1eIndiandiaspora,isme IndianSchoolof BusinessinHyderabad. Launchedin 1996byRajatGuptaandAnil Kumar(botl1 senior executivesatMcKinsey) incollaboration,\�thinternational business schools\X/hartonandKellogg,roday it ranks 33rd inthe,vorldinrhe2015 Financial TimesGlobalfl.IBARankings.

Thediaspora wasused tOfacilitate academic exchanges,collaborationand twinning arrangementsbetween Indianand foreigninstimtions.

There areother more basicways inwhich diaspora can help in facilitating businessin their home counn-y:

Remittances; The remittances from the Indian diasporaareestimated at $70billion, the highest u1 the world. Remittancesare suchahugeindustry that wehave largescale companies vyingfor the business -suchas MoneyGram. (And creating, in the process, other rnterestingformsof cross-nationalreferences suchasputting Bollywoodbadshah Shah RukhKhan on thebacksof Sydney buses!)

Tourism: Tourism is the4tl1largest induscry in the world. When diaspora "return"home,connections arebuilt with thelocal economy.

Diasporans also help bringrn tourism. Plenty of us cake omfriendsback home for weddings orjust showingtl1em ar0tmd. I've acted as murisrguide myself many times and havealso devised elaborate itineraries for my Aussie friends

While thebig players will involve themselveswith majorindustry, the service sector in lndiais poised for stronggrowth which willhave furtl1er opportunities witl1 the follow through of CECA.

Lee's nor forgerthatir was the return home of one diaspo.ra personalitychatcrea[edan independentbusinessenvironmentinIndia. MohandasKaramchandGandhileveraged hisknowledge from overseastO get Indiaits independence.

Fastforward69 odd years, here we are, discussinghow ro leverage theIndian diasporaforbusiness success\