86% of CEOs Believe Indian Economy Will Witness Improvement in the Next 12 Months: Survey

According to PwC’s 27th Annual Global CEO Survey, India has moved up to the 5th position among preferred investment destinations for global CEOs, marking a notable jump from its previous ranking of ninth place in 2023. The survey, which polled 4,702 CEOs in 105 countries and territories, including 79 from India, revealed that 70% of CEOs in India express high confidence in their company's potential for revenue growth in the coming three years, and 86% of these CEOs believe that the Indian economy will witness improvement in the next 12 months.

When asked how confident they were about their company's growth in the next year, a significant 62% of CEOs in India said they were "extremely or very confident." In contrast, only 37% of CEOs worldwide expressed the same degree of assurance. “Despite continuing global headwinds, the Indian economy has remained resilient with expectations of a strong growth trajectory in the near future. While India CEOs will indeed play a big role in the country becoming a five-trillion-dollar economy, they will also need to reinvent their businesses and work culture to ensure long-term sustainable success,” said Chairperson of PwC in India Sanjeev Krishan, as reported by the Economic Times.

While the majority of CEOs in India are optimistic about the future, a significant number of them are worried about the necessity of embracing change to stay up with emerging trends. Fifty-nine percent of CEOs in India, compared to 53% of CEOs worldwide, said that their business would continue to be profitable for over 10 years if they followed their current trajectory, while 38% believed this would only be the case for less than a decade.

India's CEOs viewed cyber threats and inflation as the two top short-term (12-month) challenges to their companies, according to the study. Of India's CEOs, 28% anticipate extreme or high exposure to cyber threats, up from 18% the year before. Twenty-seven percent of CEOs indicated that they anticipated their companies to be extremely and highly exposed to them in the upcoming year.

The 2024 survey responses from India's CEOs on climate change challenges reflect keen awareness of the need to accelerate climate action, even if they also acknowledge that it is still a work in progress. Only 8% of respondents reported having finished projects to lower consumption and increase energy efficiency, while 82% reported that they were working on it, and 4% claimed they had no intentions.

The CEOs from India have reported progress in major issues facing corporates like workforce reskilling, decarbonization, climate adaptation, and investments in nature-based climate solutions. However, they also stated that the ability of Indian enterprises to decarbonize to a moderate and very large extent was being hampered by legislative complexity (50%), a lack of climate-friendly technologies (49%), a lack of demand from external stakeholders (44%), and lower returns on climate-friendly investments (48%).