New Delhi:
India has outperformed the US markets and emerging markets are, on average, growing at double the rate of developed economies, ace investor Mark Mobius has said.
In a conversation with investor Ramesh Damani at the NDTV World Summit on Monday, Mr Mobius said Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s thrust on digital infrastructure and the opening up of the economy has been key to India’s growth.
Mr Mobius, who is the founder of Mobius Capital Partners LLP and is known as the ‘Indiana Jones of emerging market investing’, said, “I always think of India as the United States of India, because there are different states. It’s mind-boggling – you are one nation but you are speaking different languages and even the written languages are different. The first thing he (PM Modi) did was unify the tax system. This is an incredible accomplishment. This is something that probably would have taken a century.”
The investor said India’s diversity results in incredible creativity and the future belongs to those who are creative.
“I definitely think India is going to become a leader or the leader in semiconductor production in the future. One reason I say that is the demand – you have got a market here that is one of the biggest in the world. Secondly, it is a relatively open economy, so you are going to be able to take technology from Taiwan, China, the United States, wherever. Thirdly, you have got an incredible software industry already, you are the largest exporter of software in the world,” Mr Mobius said, adding that many large semiconductor companies already have software bases in India.
The investor said semiconductor fabrication will happen in India because the country has the labour force.
“I remember I was meeting an Indian friend of mine a few years ago and I said India will become a big semiconductor manufacturer. He said Indians are not as patient and not so good with small things like the Chinese are and I asked him if he had seen the places where they are polishing these tiny diamonds in India. They will do a very good job here, no questions about it. But it will require a huge amount of capital,” he added.
In terms of return on capital, it’s “India, China and the US”, Mr Mobius said, adding that India still presents plenty of opportunities despite stock prices climbing.
As the conversation moved to lighter topics, the investor said he likes the ‘Baahubali’ movies and also had a picture taken with a statue of the villain from the movies in Hyderabad.
