India Ranked Among Top Nations for CEO Confidence in Investment and Economic Growth: PwC Survey

But while global CEOs are concerned about macroeconomic volatility, inflation, and cyber risks, Indian CEOs say the biggest threat they face is technological disruption, the survey said.

According to PwC's 28th Annual Global CEO Survey: India Perspective, being unveiled at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Tuesday, a majority of India's CEOs -- 87 per cent -- are positive about domestic growth, with more than 68 per cent likely to expand their headcount over the next 12 months.

But while global CEOs are concerned about macroeconomic volatility, inflation, and cyber risks, Indian CEOs say the biggest threat they face is technological disruption, the survey said.

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"Many India CEOs are aggressively integrating or are set to integrate artificial intelligence (AI) and generative AI (GenAI) into their company's business products and processes over the next three years -- not by choice, but by compulsion," the survey said.

The PwC survey also found that while over half of Indian CEOs were positive about GenAI’s impact on profitability, trust remained an issue, with only a third of both global and Indian CEOs having high trust in AI’s integration into business processes.

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Four in 10 CEOs in India, like their global counterparts, said that their companies have begun competing in at least one new sector or industry in the past five years, generating 1-20 percent of their revenue from sectors such as consumer, industrial manufacturing, and aerospace, and defence.

The survey polled more than 4,700 CEOs across 109 countries, including more than 75 from India.

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One-third of Indian CEOs reported revenue growth from climate-friendly investments over the past five years.

India continues to be among the top five territories, along with the US, the UK, Germany, and Mainland China, for global CEOs' investment plans in the next 12 months for the second year running.

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"India has two fundamental advantages that can be leveraged in the global scenario. First, it's probably the largest consumption economy. Second, it is and can continue to truly be the skill capital of the world," Rishad Premji, executive chairman of Wipro, said in the survey.

India CEOs are more optimistic than their global counterparts regarding revenue growth for their companies, both over the short term (57 per cent compared with 38 per cent) and over the long term (74 per cent compared with 53 per cent).

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Despite this optimism, the survey went on to say that a large part of the CEOs is plagued with concerns over the sustainability of their businesses in the long run. As much as 42% of the global and Indian CEOs feel that their companies will remain economically viable only for 10 years or less, if their present trend continues. More than half are worried about a change in the regulatory environment.

More Indian CEOs are concerned about the economic viability of their businesses than last year.". Indian CEOs now feel they need to retune their decisions and hit the intelligent reinvention reset button just to survive the market, the survey said.

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For India, in comparison with that average, while 56% of global CEOs said a proportion of personal incentives was determined based on sustainability metrics, 58% of CEOs in India revealed that a part of their incentives was determined that way.

In India, 38 percent of CEOs emphasized that climate-friendly investments initiated by their companies in the past five years had increased revenue, while 33 percent said such investments had increased costs.

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Read also| WEF Chief Predicts 7-8% Growth for India Due to Economic Reforms

Read also| Government Inks Rs 2,960 Crore Deal with Bharat Dynamics for Missile Production for Indian Navy

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