Vikram Kirloskar, Chairman and Managing Director, Kirloskar Systems Limited.
I am very pleased to hear that Indian Institute of Management Bangalore is setting up the India-Japan Study Centre. This is something which is very important. Although India’s business with Japan started many, many years ago, it has really improved over the last decade or so. India and Japan have become not only business partners or trade partners, but also strategic partners on geo-politics and various other things. Japan is investing in India in a big way, in transportation – not just in cars but also in the bullet train. It is the right time to start such a Study Centre. It is not only about understanding management. The understanding of culture, psyche and thinking will improve business in a big way.
I started doing business with Japan in 1984-85. At that time, there were a few of us companies buying machinery from Japan. Since then, business has changed dramatically. At that time, when I used to first go to Japan to sell and buy, I used to ask them, ‘Why don’t you invest more in India?’ At that time, the priority of Japan was to invest in China – they saw that as a big market but things have changed since dramatically. India is one of the biggest or the most important geo-political partner, defence partner as well as one of the biggest places where they can invest. The market here has developed over a period of time. The manufacturing technology, which the Japanese brought in with the automobiles, has really changed the manufacturing scene in India, which is very important. It is hard to imagine that we are one of the largest automobile exporters in the world. More than 900,000 automobiles are exported annually, and a lot of this is due to the efforts that the Japanese put in in India. Now, we have to go beyond that… beyond manufacturing. It is larger-scale investment, infrastructure investment like the bullet train, and it is also going to require a deeper understanding of the psyche of each other. It is not just the technology, it is the understanding of the management, it is the understanding of the way one thinks and that is the way we will develop together. I think the India Japan Study Centre at IIM Bangalore, along with the partner universities in Japan, will make a big difference, in this kind of understanding and in furthering the relationship with Japan.
Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Chairman, Biocon Ltd.
The launch of the India- apan Study Centre (IJSC) at IIM Bangalore is indeed a proud moment.
With compelling business and bilateral interests propelling the fast-evolving India-Japan strategic partnership, IIMB, with its academic and research competencies, will facilitate collaborative initiatives among academia, industry and government agencies of both countries, through the India Japan Study Centre.
There is a unique opportunity to combine Japan’s renowned quality systems with India's low-cost innovation paradigm in advanced manufacturing opportunities.
The India Japan Study Centre can also provide a synergistic platform for mutually beneficial academic and inter-governmental initiatives to contribute to the shared ethos of the ‘Resurgent Japan, Vibrant India’ agenda.
Eisuke Shiozaki, Chairman and Managing Director, Mitsubishi Corporation India (MCI)
It is a great pleasure to be associated with IIM Bangalore and with a project, such as digital learning through Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), which allows education to reach millions of students across the globe. I just walked inside this great facility – this campus, and I think there is no excuse not to study here! Mitsubishi Corporation would like to contribute more.
There is a growing influence of IOT. IOTs are everywhere. They are in connected cars, in entertainment, in smart homes, in wearables, in health and in retail. I feel this digital lab is also an addition to the IOT movement which is going on across the globe at the moment.
At this time, I wish to share with you one of Mitsubishi’s corporate principles, which is corporate responsibility to society, which means striving to enrich society both materially and spiritually while contributing to preserving the global heritage in environment. In India, Mitsubishi Corporation is involved in several CSR activities which includes long-term partnership with MS Swaminathan Foundation for the development of smart villages in the state of Andhra Pradesh, support for women empowerment in Kolkata, and setting up of an MSME incubation centre at Delhi, to name just a few.
We hope that this Case Recording Laboratory at IIMB goes a long way in supporting the future generations of decision-makers in India.