We must take big steps to become the world's preferred manufacturing destination. No nation can bet its future on just the service industry

These are the early years of the new millennium still, and I am convinced that India can win, and win big in the future, but only if our government makes winning its #1 priority. Life in the United States has taught me that winning requires intense desire, relentless focus, and flawless execution. This is true for companies as well as for countries although the job is much tougher in the case of countries. Winning big requires dreaming big and taking bold steps to fulfill these dreams. Sometimes, most times these steps are not very popular.

What India lacks when it comes to making it big is serious commitment to carry out its bold mission, without compromise. We are not wanting in good ideas-we are weak in execution. Our political and business leaders need the will to do what has to be done; they have to learn to sacrifice their personal agendas for the larger good. For example, our country has to focus on upgrading its rapidly deteriorating infrastructure on a war footing. This is long overdue: our infrastructure just has not been able to keep pace with growing urbanisation.

We have the people, raw materials and capital to do so; unfortunately, we lack the foresight. We need to rebuild our nation's highways, railways, airports, hospitals, and housing infrastructure. We need to provide adequate electricity, telecom, water... the list is endless. And we need to do all this now. If we do not do this, the inadequacies of this country's infrastructure will begin to have an adverse effect on our growing it and service businesses. An efficient infrastructure will also help generate billions of dollars of additional revenues through increased tourism.

Similarly, we must take big steps to become the world's preferred manufacturing destination. No nation can bet its future on just the service industry. The foundation of a developing nation must be grounded in its manufacturing sector. We have the lowest labour cost in the world but unless our infrastructure is upgraded we will not be cost competitive in international markets.

We should, as a nation, focus on manufacturing, just as we have done on information technology and telecom. Our goal should be to supply 30 per cent of world's basic goods: toasters, irons, microwaves, cooktops, refrigerators, airconditioners, washers and dryers, etc. This will provide employment to our masses and help ease India's transition from an agricultural economy to an industrial one. This will lift the standard of living of the bottom two-thirds of our people. It will increase the disposable income at hand for a large section of our society. And that will, in turn, create demand for local goods and services, providing the economy with a much-needed boost.

I am often asked whether I would have succeeded had I stayed in India. The answer is "No". Despite the great strides we have made in the information technology services business, India still does not have companies that can make the required capital investments or the necessary infrastructure for creating a product like Pentium. However, today, with the entry of Intel, Texas Instruments and a bunch of other multinationals, pulled to India by the availability of a highly talented lower cost engineering talent pool, India's engineers can look forward to opportunities for developing new generations of Pentiums.

India has shown to the world that it is a developing nation with the intellectual power of a developed one. The decade-long liberalisation effort has shown good results. India is poised to win big-but it needs to quickly capitalise on its new-found momentum. The absence of a stable majority in ruling governments is preventing bold moves; in trying to appease all, we are watering down the critical mandates. The bureaucratic system is outdated and needs a major overhaul. And there is a pressing need for domain experts to guide government policies, not generalists. Bureaucracy, corruption and tax evasion costs India billions of dollars in capital badly needed to rebuild the nation's infrastructure. We must be united as a nation. The interest of the nation should come before the interest of the individual-in industry we call this teamwork. As a nation, we have to learn to "disagree and commit" for the sake of the larger good. We must not get complacent with some success; we can be the greatest nation on this planet in every respect if we want to be that. And nothing short of it should beacceptable.