Indian SMBs get like from Facebook chief operating officer

Hyderabad: India, an emerging global economic power, has the potential to become the largest economy in the world, Facebook chief operating officer (COO) Sheryl Sandberg said on Monday.

Ms Sandberg, who served as chief of staff for the US treasury department under President Bill Clinton, said the over $2 trillion Indian economy has immense potential to create jobs and drive growth, especially with its huge base of small and medium businesses (SMBs).

“India has the potential to become the largest economy in the world. And if you look at economic growth, particularly recently, jobs is a hard situation all over the world. From the US to developing markets, everyone is very concerned about jobs. And majority of the growth, as I understand it, is certainly here and in the US. In most countries, I have visited, small and medium businesses  are the way to growth,” she said.

Explaining further, Sandberg, whose previous stint was as vice president of global online sales and operations at Google, said “the answer to growth is entrepreneurship”.

“Individuals are creating businesses and employing other people, and in India, the SMBs growth is strong. And Internet provides more growth stories to SMBs. People are connecting to people and getting more customers and that’s what leads to economic growth,” she added.

Ms Sandberg said FB wants to be a part of the growth story in India, which is leapfrogging ahead in economic development.