PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi hails Modi’s 'Make in India' initiative

PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi hails Modi’s 'Make in India' initiative

KOLKATA: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call for ‘Make in India’ would help boost up manufacturing and employment in the country, PepsiCo chairman and CEO Indra Nooyi said on Saturday.

Nooyi, who heads the Fortune 500 company, also said that business success nowadays is measured on quarter-on-quarter or year-on-year basis. 

“I think the PM is absolutely right on this. It creates a manufacturing base and employment,” said Nooyi, during a brief media interaction at Indian Institute Management, Calcutta (IIM-C) convocation, in Kolkata. 

She informed that almost everything that her company sells here is “Made in India.” 

Answering a query as to whether her company was looking to promote its Rs 33,000 crore investment plan by 2020, Nooyi quipped, “That’s a lot of money... let’s get on with that.”

Talking about the success of business, she said, “Most successful businesses are those, which focus on the long-term. The most successful companies are the ones that create value over the long term for employees, for shareholders, and for the greater community.” 

“We’re working every day to build a more balanced portfolio, to conserve natural resources, and to create diverse, inclusive workplaces, because we understand that long-term growth is contingent upon a healthy relationship between a company, its community, and its consumers,” Nooyi said. 

She further said that challenges faced by India are inter-connected, which demands solutions and leadership. 

“We still face complex challenges like inequality, climate change and resource scarcity that demand solutions and leadership. Making these challenges even more complex is the fact that they are all interconnected. You cannot dive into one issue without touching another,” Nooyi said.

In her concluding remarks, Nooyi said that though the county has made a lot of progress over the last four decades, India has a long way to go going forward.