And for a Friday, as Europe’s biggest economy plunges into political crisis, some thoughts….. some musings…..
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz lost the confidence vote for his “Traffic Light” coalition. He was supported only by 207 Lawmakers in the Bundestag (German Parliament) with a total strength of 733 members, of whom 394 voted against his Govt. The main reason; there was no unanimity amongst the coalition partners on how to revitalise Germany’s stagnant economy. Honestly, as the former CMD of a large German MNC in India, I have been seeing this economic situation coming for a long time. In the early 2000’s, whilst in service, I had a running battle with the German Board and Management who were totally taken by the lure of the Chinese. In spite of my best efforts, I could only protect the existing manufacturing assets and keep incremental investments in India. With local financial resources, my then management team were fully aligned with me and we fought our way, consolidating the existing sites across the country and even set up a green field in Dahej. We never allowed the Indian manufacturing to be shut. Today, with Trump 2.0, every German company has to compulsively relook and strengthen their India operations. Post retirement it gives me immense pleasure to watch this unfolding saga.
I am fully convinced that Germany and India have huge synergies and can quadruple the existing 30.8 Bn €s bilateral trade between the two countries. Even after my retirement over the last decade, I have been travelling with the IGCC delegation promoting bilateral business and investments between Germany and India. Most Germans who have not travelled to India and who depend on western media for information have very little understanding of the potential of India. Some of them are shocked to know that within next 36 months, India will overtake Germany to be the third largest economy. After India overtook UK Economy, awareness is rising. There are already 8.75 lakh HNIs, whose market wealth is 1745 Bn $s, which will cross 2.5 mn HNIs with wealth of 5430 Bn $s in the next decade. The growing middle class of more than 200 mn is a huge consumption economy. So German Green manufacturing capabilities with Indian Tech manpower and consumption markets, is a huge synergy mutually beneficial to both countries.
These are challenging times for the World Economy. India is an oasis. Let us all support Indo-German cooperation and investments, the mutually beneficial way, the equitable way the SEEGOS way.