Zoho's Sridhar Vembu urges critical tech push; warns India vulnerable after 'bad economic advice' from Western elites
The Zoho founder characterized the current global financial and trade systems as fundamentally unstable, built upon a "monetary illusion," a weakness first exposed by the 2008-09 financial crisis.
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ndia must immediately ramp up investments in critical technologies to safeguard its economic future and reduce dependency on foreign systems that could be "weaponized," warned Zoho Corp founder and Chief Scientist Sridhar Vembu in a recent interview with Moneycontrol.
Vembu asserted that India's vulnerability stems from decades of flawed economic counsel provided by Western-trained experts who failed to grasp the strategic realities of global trade.
“We have to invest in all of the critical technologies so that nothing can be weaponized against us. When we buy something, we must also sell something equally valuable. That is the whole idea,” Vembu stated, stressing that the nation needs to establish a foundation for trading on equal terms with global powers.
Vembu pulled no punches in criticizing the past economic policies shaped by advice from prestigious Western universities. He argued that these policies disregarded crucial strategic implications.
“Unfortunately, we got very poor economic advice, particularly from economists trained in the West, from Columbia, Chicago, Harvard. They don’t understand trade asymmetries or how technologies can be weaponized. They told us to focus only on services and buy everything else for money. But what is money in the global system?” he questioned.
The Zoho founder characterized the current global financial and trade systems as fundamentally unstable, built upon a "monetary illusion," a weakness first exposed by the 2008-09 financial crisis.
He pointed to rising geopolitical tensions as a symptom of this imbalance: “Even today, the global system is very unstable. The tensions between the US and China are inevitable because one is a massive exporter and the other a massive importer. You cannot keep going that way forever,” he said.
To restore equilibrium, Vembu called for a focus on technological self-reliance and balanced trade, urging India to avoid both large trade deficits and surpluses.
“We are heading towards a world where we must trade on equal terms. That will require sacrifices and hard work to build these technologies ourselves,” he concluded.
Vembu's comments come as the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) pursues a dual-track strategy for Artificial Intelligence (AI), balancing the welcoming of global AI companies with the simultaneous development of robust domestic capabilities.
MeitY Additional Secretary Abhishek Singh recently confirmed this "open" approach at the India Mobile Congress, telling Moneycontrol, “We are one of those countries which doesn’t shy away from letting American or Western companies operate in India, while we build up our own capabilities.”
