Hyderabad CEOs unveil top risks hindering India’s economic growth

When business leaders from pharma, agriculture, energy, healthcare, manufacturing and law came together for the fourth roundtable discussion of the Mint Leadership Dialogues-Season 2 in Hyderabad, the opening question was simple: from an Indian economy perspective, what is the single biggest risk?

- Staff Writer

But the answers show the depth and persistence of India’s structural challenges—and why many of them have proved resistant to change.

“Disparity in incomes,” said N. Balasubramanian, CEO of Sresta Natural Bioproducts, setting the tone for a conversation that repeatedly returned to the uneven distribution of growth, fragility of supply chains, climate change, weak skilling pipelines and the limits of policy-led solutions.

Sidharrth Shankar, partner at JSA Advocates & Solicitors, broadened the frame, said, “Environmental issues and political instability worldwide,” he said, adding that geopolitics increasingly shapes trade and growth outcomes. “A lot of these factors do play a role—trade and other things.”

Regulation, uncertainty

Regulatory change featured prominently. “Too many,” Shankar said when asked about regulatory shifts. He cited recent developments: “In November itself we've seen two very large changes. One is the whole data protection which has become live. And then we see the labour codes—29 legislations and laws which have been combined into four labour codes.”

From a pharma perspective, Raja Bhanu K., director-general of industry body Pharmexcil, highlighted both opportunity and vulnerability. “Drugs worldwide is almost like a $1.6-trillion business, and by 2030 it will be almost $2.4 trillion,” he said. Yet the Indian pharma market, he noted, remains heavily export-oriented, with heavy dependence on the US. “All these years we tried to put all eggs in one basket—one-third (of exports was going to the US.” That will need to change.

Tech, capital, infra gaps