Engineering India's Competitiveness

In this era of great structural rewiring, competitiveness is the real differentiator.

- AMIT KAPOOR

Emerging economies, including India, which were long content to compete on size and cost, may find these levers suddenly inadequate. The architecture of global trade and production is shifting. Supply chains are being reshored, shortened, and hedged for geopolitical resilience. We are at a crossroads with technology—artificial intelligence (AI) is being dubbed as the 'new electricity,' redefining the future. Climate change and the poly crisis are closing in, and amid all this, India seeks to march ahead towards becoming 'viksit' (developed) by 2047.

In this churn of uncertainties, our country is, in fact, uniquely well-positioned as a potential manufacturing alternative to China, a digital democracy of scale, and a vast consumer market in the making. Potential, however, is not the same as performance, and favorable positioning does not automatically translate into sustained advantage or shared prosperity for all. The real test facing our country today is to convert this era of global fluidity into a durable competitive edge.

For too long, our growth narrative has been leaning heavily on traditional competitive advantages like a youthful workforce, a globally renowned service sector, and huge market potential, etc. While these are truly advantageous, in the current economic landscape, they are increasingly becoming insufficient. The global economy today is looking for productive ecosystems, policy coherence, and a certain level of predictability. Being cheap is not the only thing that matters anymore—what matters is how well everything works. Look at how Taiwan, led by the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), grew its semiconductor ecosystem, which alone controls over 50% of the global foundry market.