Former NITI Aayog Vice Chairman says India still has a long way to go towards Viksit Bharat; Ajay Piramal stresses values, adaptability and leadership by example
Mumbai: Former NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Dr Rajiv Kumar has cautioned against complacency in India’s development journey, saying the country is yet to undergo the transformation required to meet its long-term economic ambitions and that “business as usual will not do”. Speaking at an Indian Chamber of Commerce (ICC) event in Mumbai, Kumar pointed to India’s inability to achieve the earlier target of becoming a $5 trillion economy by 2024-25 and said greater emphasis would have to be placed on innovation, research and development and technological breakthroughs. “India is yet to be transformed, because we have our own promises to keep,” Kumar said during a conversation with Piramal Group Chairman Ajay Piramal at the launch of ICC’s centenary publication, Never Taking No for an Answer: India’s Indomitable Private Enterprise.
The $5 trillion target was formally articulated by the Union government in 2019, when the Economic Survey and Union Budget envisaged India reaching that milestone by 2024-25. The target was not achieved within that timeframe. Kumar identified complacency, including within sections of the bureaucracy, as one of the challenges confronting the country. “The favoured state of existence in a large part of the bureaucracy is the status quo,” he said, while adding that this remained at odds with the scale of transformation India was seeking. He argued that achieving the ambition of Viksit Bharat would require a departure from conventional approaches. “Innovation, R&D, technical and technological breakthroughs are going to be the key,” Kumar said. “It’s really a serious time that we all believe that business as usual will not do. We’ve got to think differently.” He also made a case for a degree of impatience among younger leaders, saying it could serve as a counter to institutional complacency. At the same time, he underlined the importance of continuous learning across generations.
Piramal, meanwhile, focused on the challenges of sustaining institutions and family businesses across generations, arguing that businesses must be willing to change even while retaining fundamental values. “Everything can change, but the values cannot change,” Piramal said. He said subsequent generations could not necessarily remain in the same businesses established by their predecessors and would have to adapt to changing economic circumstances. Integrity, humility, authenticity and the willingness to take risks, however, remained enduring principles, he said. Piramal also said younger generations were more likely to respond to conduct than advice. “You can give any number of lectures, especially to Gen Z. They’re not going to listen to you if you are doing the opposite,” he said, stressing the importance of leadership by example.
The discussion was moderated by Ankit Gupta, Chairperson of the Mumbai chapter of the ICC Young Leaders Forum. Gupta said younger leaders had lessons to draw from earlier generations while also questioning established ways of doing business. The event formed part of ICC’s centenary observances. Founded in 1925, the chamber completed 100 years in 2025. The book released at the event has been edited by Rajiv Kumar and brings together essays from business and institutional figures including Kumar Mangalam Birla, Sanjiv Goenka, Ajay Piramal, Naveen Jindal, Sangita Reddy, Bharat Hari Singhania, Harsh Neotia, Ratan Jindal and Omkar Goswami. The publication examines the evolution of Indian private enterprise through periods including the freedom movement, the licence-control era and post-1991 economic liberalisation. While the centenary event looked back at a century of private enterprise, Kumar’s remarks shifted the focus to the unfinished economic agenda ahead, arguing that India’s future growth would depend less on celebrating past achievements and more on its willingness to challenge institutional inertia and invest in innovation.
