India must be patient; its solution has to be custom-made: General Atlantic’s Escobari

India must find its development path in its own “unique richness of traditions and complexities” rather than follow the China model, according to Martin Escobari, Co-President and Managing Director of global growth equity firm General Atlantic.

In an interview to Zerodha co-founder Nikhil Kamath, Escobari said while China’s accomplishments in 25 years have been “breathtaking”, Indian investors need to be patient.

He narrated that coming out of business school, when he visited China, its GDP was only about 20 per cent bigger than Brazil’s, while now it’s 14 times bigger.

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When Kamath asked Escobari what China got right, the latter replied, “…they industrialised, they built the infrastructure development, they embraced digital, they embraced manufacturing,” especially “export-led manufacturing”.

Solution for India has to be custom-made: Escobari

Then Kamath added that China has a political advantage—that it does not have an election every five years, and so it does not make five-year plans but “40-year plans”—Escobari said with a smile that the solution for India has to be “more nuanced than that and custom-made for India” with its “unique richness of traditions and complexities”.

Escobari said he believes in India’s potential, having invested over USD 5 billion in the country, and the country is in the right direction.

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Looking at the India’s growth trajectory, he said, “Eight per cent is a lot. Eight per cent compounded over 10 years. So be patient with your country."

Kamath remarked that he believes India will eventually be a 10-trillion-dollar country, but that may not happen in the next five, eight or even 10 years.

‘Curse of domestic market’

Earlier, he pointed out that while India has a billion and a half people, more engineers than anywhere in the world, why did no global company come out of India?

Escobari said first, it takes a pioneer to make the “role model effect”. He said India’s capital markets are ready and “there is unfair access to human capital that is AI-trained at the right time”. “You just need the courage to do what has never been done before,” he added.

Quickly, he added that the domestic market of 1.3 billion people is a “curse” or a “blessing”, whichever way one looks at it.

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“You have a humongous domestic market… It is uncomfortable to go to a new country, build a multi-country team and get out of the comfort zone,” he said.

He also noted that “even conquering India is not like conquering a single country”. “The diversity in your country is beyond comprehension to anyone who hasn’t travelled to your country. It’s not one country. It’s an amalgamation of civilisations.”