EP 4 What sets the Indian Investment sector apart?

[00:00:00] You were the chairman of Coventry Sports Football Club.

[00:00:05] Coventry City Football Club, yes, that's why it looks so old.

[00:00:07] Footballers run you down, ran you down.

[00:00:12] Well, I was carrying motors and most of the time.

[00:00:15] That's why I walk with a slight stoop.

[00:00:17] The daughter is called India.

[00:00:19] She is indeed so I'm a self-dedicated and self-aware India file.

[00:00:25] Who go to India more than I do? who actually challenges this stereotype. He aced engineering from the Imperial College, then he aged the world of finance as an investment banker, and now he's investing in education, nurturing the new football talent while making sure that they get their degree as well. Tim Fisher.

[00:01:41] Thank you very much for joining us.

[00:01:43] He is not only wearing multiple hats, determination. So India seemed to be the perfect name. However, in her 24th year, which she is now, I would say that India is still the appropriate name because she has become an enigma within a riddle, within a mystery. She's frustrating. She is as well. So she's closely connected in her understanding for the country. Oh wonderful. Yes of course we have to talk about India more than India, the daughter but there you are. So tell me more about your India connection. So as an investment banker the analysis for us and build the what was the investment model and the investment appraisal why would we be investing in this particular opportunity or perhaps no Tim we shouldn't be going anywhere near this particular opportunity and so you went to India for talent 20 years and The Morgan Stanley paper recently suggests that India is an in-inevitability, inevitable India. My question is between incredible and in-inevitable, show me, please show me, investable. And that's what this is about now. And there are certainly signs of investability for sure.

[00:07:04] And what's that? And what are the challenges? three and a half four rupees of GDP growth. So the Indian government really understand the link between infrastructure and GDP growth. The other point of course is that you've got a population which is 1.4 billion. There's always been a huge population but the demographic is changing.

[00:09:25] between an educated workforce and gross domestic product economic growth.

[00:09:34] So you find all these things and creating an investable op India for you. What are your challenges?

[00:09:39] Well let's talk about the competition first. China.

[00:09:44] Okay. So China is a own structural issues at the moment. Debt burden.

[00:11:00] Mrs. Chen, the equivalent of Mrs. Watanabe in Japan,

[00:11:04] isn't spending money from the household finances. the political backdrop, I see certain challenges still in India. I see potentially the politics of discrimination, Hindu, Muslim. I see an opacity. There is often a no-paintiness around donations made to political parties. Again, that's something which investors are really quite

[00:12:23] nervous about, but that is the political risk. You have a lower house, you have an upper house, you have 445 seats, first pass the post. So I feel I know the political system. And also I believe that one of the key, if reversal of the trend of the direction of trouble. So you feel that, well, Mok and Stanley had said, that India is sort of insulated even if the world recession comes. So is India insulated enough because of all that you said, the demographic

[00:15:04] dividend or the growth dividend, so the growth structure to the world recession?

[00:16:05] Indian economy, there is merit to that, absolutely. But if the world is not buying as many goods,

[00:16:13] less goods need to be manufactured and in India the GDP contribution for manufacturing is somewhere in the region of 20%, so non-trivial. So if you have a pullback there, so I'm not saying

[00:16:20] that when the world sneezes, we go to flu in India New Delhi versus New York, very different offerings, New Delhi, you get vegetarian options, not in New York. And of course, the franchisees who have made themselves billionaires in India recognize that.

[00:17:43] So there's a cultural sensitivity to tax reform. So as an investor, I will likely be given tax breaks,

[00:19:01] depending on whether I invest via a special economic zone,

[00:19:05] for example, whatever it may be. to long side, many investors aren't looking at short term. So if they see that there is likely a long term macroeconomic uplift in the country, I don't worry about the short term bet. I'm making appraisal of the long term bet. And the long term bet, Lavina,

[00:20:21] looks real. It looks real. It looks. So they're bringing digital learning to schools.

[00:21:42] Digital learning is available in the United States, in any sector, whether that's electronics, whether that's steelmaking, whatever it is,

[00:23:03] you need a skilled workforce.

[00:23:05] And that all starts with education and in the United States everyone knows that there is this wonderful if you're an incredibly talented sports person you can go on to get a high level of learning and get a degree and go do your masters and PhD whatever it means so we've adopted the same type of model here

[00:24:21] in the UK so our first football club was Coventry City where when I was In India, you were quite known, oh, doctor, engineer, lawyer, you will often hurt. But now I feel it's changing. Do you feel that too? It's not a matter of feeling it in my waters. It's fact because we're getting more and more student from India coming on to the football

[00:25:41] course and the academic course in the UK.

[00:25:45] So we see that shift.

[00:25:47] We do see that, I quite get irritated now when people tell me, oh, Indian families only think of, no, they actually do want to make their children singers or this or that. And you see that shift in football. It's quite, I mean, even from our club, who went on to play in India. So a number of very high profile British footballers came and saw continue to play in India.

[00:28:21] What excitement do you see in the world of sports in India?

[00:28:25] They have moved up and coming. companies have now suddenly have Indian origin CEOs or is it connected to the India growth story or is this if they've started being noticed more? Almost the reason. So I don't know whether it's suddenly, Lavina. I've known of Indian CEOs for mindset. They're resilient. I think that's quite I would say that. Why do you think it comes from? I think that's the only question for you. It could be the competition is huge. So you always have to be on your toes. Oh wow. So if you talk about

[00:31:00] IIT, IAM and you will correct me here, it's not the top 1% beginning to IIT or, but if it's in winter then I will travel as far north in the Punjab as I can to have some heavily oiled food. So I love the Punjab as well. So and the Tamiladhu, so Chennai, I love that part of India too. So I've got to know this is my favourite place.

[00:32:23] I'm very fortunate I have a home in India. Where do me, I have to be very careful. I don't want to be pejorative here, but I would say Gujarati is the toughest negotiators, not in India, in the world. So, the mindset in India is always to do a deal, a fair deal.

[00:33:42] And the one thing I've always done, and I've always believed in, is you never retrade.

[00:33:45] So, Lavina, if you and I do a deal, When I've done business with Indian counterparts, it's not we have to get it done now These are the terms of the deal. What do you think and if and if they're not right for you You need to go and come back the terms which you think are right. So It's it's a process Time patience and process absolutely time. Okay. Your last word on the India growth story. How do you feel about? I?

[00:35:05] Feel motivated by it. I do believe enigmatic. Right. It's mysterious as I said a mystery within an enigma within a riddle. Oh wonderful okay number third what is the export to the world the most exciting, it's part. So my children who are 27 and 24 respectively, they don't know anything other than having Indian heritage as part of the UK culture, be that music, be that food, be that B that be? Oh, that's a great question. I don't want to be rude to Mr Modi, so I'll say that I suspect it'd be too busy to have dinner with me. If I had the ability to go back in time, I think based on the history, Mr Naira, I think that would be...

[00:39:03] Really head over the...

[00:39:04] I think so. I think that would too...

[00:40:06] football club and now is running a sterling education, spreading mobile, I would say mobile university. I kept calling it saying that and also teaching of you know nurturing the talent,

[00:40:13] the football talent, but making sure they have a backup plan in education. And we will continue

[00:40:18] our India story with more such guests. So thank you very much for joining.