India is the silver lining in the challenging era of low growth, low investment and low cooperation: Nitin Paranjpe

Addressing the stakeholders on the company’s Annual General Meeting, Nitin Paranjpe, Chairman, Hindustan Unilever, stated that the nation is emerging steadily from the shadows of being a 'poor nation’ to being a silver lining to a challenging era of low growth, low investment and low cooperation owing to its efforts on climate action, focus on digital public infrastructure and more.

He also cited the World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report 2023, which mentions failure to mitigate and adapt to climate change, natural disasters and extreme weather events, biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse, etc. as some of the severest long-term global risks and stated that while the onset of these is already being felt by major economies, India appears to be the “silver lining.”

“Emerging steadily from the shadows of being a 'poor nation', India has been the fastest growing economy in the last decade and is touted to become the world's third largest economy by 2027, surpassing Japan and Germany. The country's ambition of becoming a high-middle income country by 2047, when the nation celebrates 100 years of Independence, is a definite possibility,” he said.

Commenting on some of the factors which will help the country in its journey, he betted big on India’s favourable demographics in terms of the staying young for long; rising consumption owing to growing affluence, urbanisation and the rapidly growing nuclear family structure; enviable digital public infrastructure - which is well-poised to lead the fourth industrial revolution in conjunction with physical, digital and biological worlds, and is transforming several sectors across the world. 

“India is well placed to leapfrog into the future, but we must be cognisant of the challenges that if unaddressed, this opportunity may be into an obstacle. The demographic dividend the country presents needs nurturing to ensure it does not become a demographic burden and in turn boosts employment through focus on building relevant skills and employability. There is also a need to increase agricultural productivity and on the other, we need to move people out of agriculture dependent livelihoods. Moreover, there should be equal participation of women in the workforce, the creation of a healthy society along with a focus on sustainable growth,” he stated.

He also emphasised that the company’s culture of developing talent and meritocracy has made HUL a preferred employer over the years and that nearly half of the managerial workforce at HUL are women. He also mentioned that the company is poised to achieve gender parity by 2025 through initiatives like Project Ahilya.

Throwing light on how HUL is partnering in India’s growth, he stated that ever since the company was incorporated 90 years back, the FMCG major has integrated the needs of society into its business and its growth deeply intertwined with that of the nation’s. 

“We are continuously transforming to keep in step with a fast-changing India – be it through driving innovation to cater to changing needs of our consumers, digitising our value chain to be more agile and responsive and caring for the people and the planet. In fact, there are three key forces that are pivotal to driving the HUL of tomorrow- building human capital and creating a gender balanced workforce with developing talent through inclusion beyond gender; embracing change to remain future-fit; embedding purpose into our business strategy and being planet positive whilst enhancing livelihoods,” he said.

He also stated that the company hopes to positively impact the planet and its people, and especially partner India in its journey and build on the company’s forever belief that ‘what is good for India, is good for HUL’.

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