The perception of Brand India has improved tremendously with the economic progress in recent years, and the country is now seen as a land of investment, Oxford University Professor Soumitra Dutta told IANS in an exclusive interview.

Dutta, the Dean and Professor of Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, said, “When I talk to young people in India, I tell them that the brand that you have right now is a huge benefit and they don’t take it for granted. When I sort of had to go for foreign studies, 30 years ago, the brand of India was very, very different.”

He further stated that India is seen as the land of opportunity and as a player on the global stage and this is very important as India is a large country with a large population.

“India has to be seen as a valid contributor to the growth of the entire world. India has been a contributor to the actual development, even under the global South and for example, the PRAGATI system that has succeeded in accelerating the completion of stalled large infrastructure projects,” the professor said.

“One of the reasons why it is interesting for me also is that the PRAGATI ecosystem has useful lessons for the Global South. Other leaders in the Global South and the large parts of Africa, Latin America, and Asia also need huge investments in infrastructure, and large, wide, system-wide changes. They also need to know how to learn how to do these projects better and more effectively, and faster and more efficiently,” he pointed out.

Dutta is a co-author of a just-released study titled, “From Gridlock to Growth- How Leadership Enables India’s PRAGATI Ecosystem to Power Progress” is of the view that this system with the Prime Minister personally monitoring large projects must be emulated by other global leaders to spur economic growth.

He said, “The PRAGATI ecosystem shows them a pathway of doing so. And I think India, part of being a good citizen of the world, part of being a good leader, is to be able to help others. India is in a position where it is not only helping itself but also helping others. And PRAGATI is one example of it in which it can actually show our leadership in the best practice of good practice.”

“On the whole, I think India is making good progress and I think there’s a lot to be done, but we are in a good position and we get it done,” he remarked.

“I think people are more aware of India’s progress. And I must say that the success of Indians abroad also has stimulated that curiosity about India and what happens in India, because, you know, when you have the CEOs of major tech companies or the leaders of major Western nations being of Indian origin, I think that’s a major development.,” he added.

At the same time, he said, “The reality, I must also say, is that a lot of people do not know very well all the good things happening inside the country. For example, even though UPI and the whole payment system in India is the number one in the world, most people have limited knowledge of the India stack.”

“And similarly, the same is true of PRAGATI. The knowledge about PRAGATI, internationally is quite low. And that’s one reason why I actually wanted to do the case study on PRAGATI because this helps to understand the strength of the product better and to be able to share what is happening,” he added.

(With inputs from IANS)