Scott Bayman about his 14 years in India

Excerpts from a speech delivered by Scott Bayman, the outgoing chief of GE India, after 14 years in the country http://www.ciionline.org/events/3087/sb.pdf:
"Some argue that India's path has distinct advantages. MIT'sYasheng Huang points out that India's companies use their
capital far more efficiently than China's; they benchmark to global standards and are better managed than Chinese firms are.
Despite being much poorer than China, India has produced dozens of privately owned excellent companies like Infosys,
Ranbaxy, Tata Steel, Bharat Forge and Reliance. Huang attributes this difference to the fact that India has a real and deep
private sector (unlike China's many state-owned and statefunded companies.) India has a well-developed, well-regulated
financial system and a rule of law. Jeff Immelt explains, “China got the infrastructure right. Its government is superb at
developing infrastructure. However, China has not developed a banking system, rule of law or private enterprise to the extent
India has. India’s government, on the other hand, has failed to deliver the infrastructure that governments typically are required to supply in developing countries. But, its executives are proving to be world class. Their abilities to build and lead businesses far exceed what we see in China.
Another example: every year Japan awards the coveted Deming Prizes for managerial innovation. Over the last four years, 12
Indian companies won the award… more than any other country, including Japan.
......
I don’t dispute the fact that the country must tackle huge social issues as pointed out in the Mishra article. I also don’t dispute that more could have been done and more needs to be done. However, there is progress. The incidence of
poverty has declined from 44% in the 1980s to 36% in the 1990s to 26% in 2000. Literacy rates improved from 44% in the 1980s to 52% in the 1990s to 65% in 2000. In addition, over this same period, life expectancy increased from 56 years
to 60 to 69.
In India, we have a woman born a Catholic / leading the most popular party /stepping aside so a Muslim president / could swear in a Sikh as Prime Minister / to lead a nation that is 82% Hindu / but has the second largest Muslim population
in the world. And by the way, some of the wealthier Indians residing in the country are Muslim. I defy anyone to cite another country with such diversity and tolerance."
P.S. The article was sent to me by an economist Grama Sitaram. A list Deming Application prizes:
http://www.juse.or.jp/e/deming/10_prizelist.html#02
More about Deming prizes at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deming_Prize