The world may be on the cusp of the return of global colonialism, feels veteran banker Uday Kotak

At a time, the world is roiled in a major geopolitical conflict with the US and Israel attacking Iran, and neither side backing off, Uday Kotak, the founder and director of private sector lender Kotak Mahindra Bank, feels the world may be headed towards another phase of global colonialism.

And amid this race to be a global power, Kotak rued that India Inc was not investing enough in research and innovation, something he feels must dramatically go up. 

“We are at a very important cusp of what I call the return of global colonialism,” said Kotak, speaking at industry body FICCI’s Foundation Day. 

He cited two points from the speech of US President Donald Trump this week, where he stressed that spoils from war belong to the winner and suggested charging for Strait of Hormuz passage. 

“You are getting back to a world of true colonialism. And it reminds me, especially from this occasion, how the British took control of India. I see some parallels beginning to develop in the way the world is shaping,” said Kotak. 

While everyone would like to see India as a true power, he pointed out there were at least three powers – the US, China and Russia – with “significant leverage” of economics. 

He hopes, just like has happened after every crisis post 1945, that one will see things revert to normal. But he also wonders if there could be a possibility of a structural change. 

To capture the opportunity, he called for a “sense of paranoia and a purpose.”

He pointed out that while India had done “phenomenally well” in entrepreneurship, very little was being spent on research and innovation compared to what was needed. 

“The biggest area that we need to focus on is middle manufacturing. And as far as the larger groups and larger companies are concerned, they must dramatically increase their spend on research and innovation,” Kotak stressed. 

He also wants Indian companies to introspect why, despite being “outstanding” in trade and services, the IT services firms haven’t moved to productising services, just like companies in the US have. 

He also pointed to how 60% of China’s domestic car production was now electric, while in India it was still at 3 per cent and the monopoly that China has on the raw materials for EVs. 

“I am not talking about any specific company or otherwise. But how are we truly going to put the nation first over the interests of individual businesses? Kotak questioned the gathering, which included senior industry executives and several past presidents of FICCI. 

” I feel that in many ways, China may be getting ahead even of the United States. We must ask ourselves how we get there,” said Kotak.