Indian firms find sustaining growth hard: Ansari

New Delhi, July 19: Indian firms find it hard to sustain growth in a competitive global business environment, Ansar Hamid Ansari said on Tuesday.

"The challenge before the Indian corporate sector today in the face of continuing the low level of growth and rapid changes in technology and preferences of the end consumer is how to sustain their growth in times of recession," he said at the All India Management Association (AIMA)-JRD Tata Corporate Leadership Award presentation here.

Ansari said the Indian corporate sector had some inherent weaknesses, including risk aversion, debt-addiction and low spending on R&D.

"For profitable growth, we have to strive for a premium that will accrue only if we target products that need high-quality design, engineering, and manufacturing," he said, adding that merely offering incentives to the industry may not be enough to spur innovative growth.

"We need to eventually work towards inculcating the culture and attitudes needed to foster innovation and entrepreneurship," he said.

At the event, the AIMA-JRD Tata Corporate Leadership Award was conferred on Tata Sons Chairman N. Chandrasekaran, who said India has to find new innovative models that are accessible to "every nook and corner of the country".