Speaking at the Rakesh Jhunjhunwala memorial lecture, Chandrasekaran said everyone will have to wait and watch how it plays out. “I think the problem is not the tariffs… the problem is the reversal of a model that we've gotten used to for six-seven decades. It's a model change. If the whole world had operated with tariffs between countries all the time, then the whole supply chain would not have gotten globally integrated,” he said, adding that the problem is the global supply chain has got integrated.

“Very aptly, in globalisation, basically you produce where it is cheap or where it is efficient, and you sell where there is a demand. So, that's a by-product of the model that the world got used to for so long,” Chandrasekaran said. “Now, if you change the model, the underlying supply chain infrastructure has to change and that can't change overnight because there is talent issue, raw material and sourcing issues. There are so many things. That is going to be the fundamental problem. I think it will play out. It's not going to get solved overnight,” he said, adding that the tariffs are not going back to zero.

“I personally believe that it's not going to go back to zero because when something is announced, some part of it will stay. So, where it settles, whether it settles uniformly across countries or it all gets solved bilaterally, only time will tell,” he added.

Against this backdrop, Chandra said India is well-placed economically, and there will be demand for all products, be it healthcare, infrastructure, hotels, or education, in the years to come. “There is a lot of demand and this will go on for a long time,” he said.