india beyond the beaten-path - 1

Imagineering India Driving value based opportunities with India forward…

Insightful Advice – Considered Strategy – Execution Leadership

India - beyond the beaten-path

my musings…

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India, beyond silk, spices, karma, mystic, bollywood and the extremes of the haves and have not’s; is more than a symbolic identifier amongst the various and widely published acronyms or a conventional market of increasing disposable urban income. She is a whole, complex and distinct personality, where the threads of commonality at best, extends to Her South Asian neighbors, that too weighed down by tumultuous post independence history and fragile geo-political imperatives. Still in her early stages of development, India is marching gingerly towards open-global economy, inconsistently and awkwardly addressing the internal & external divergent demands and drivers, strapped by the breadth of traditional to contemporary demography - onward with a vibrant and undefined tryst with Her destiny. “Today’s India” is the fusion of diverse experiences, including:

• Civilizational pre-eminence, mythological righteousness and emotional nostalgia of the past

• Memories of subjugation, exploitation, injustice and oppression from the pre-independence era; alas! which continues post-independence, albeit by different set & mix of people under varying and ever-so inventive pretext

• Undemocratic and painful exploits of self-centered, indulgent and unilateral post-independence leadership, which in the guise of “Poverty Alleviation” and “Population Management”, interfered adversely with democratic institutions, public good, and in turn; delivered bloated and resource-guzzling nationalized public sector enterprises and bureaucracy, a litany of budgetary line-items frittering scarce national resources, year after year, a despised source of political patronage and polarization;



mostly in the name of Fabian Socialism and Irrational Self-Sufficiency, a profound indulgence in naval-gazing

• Unwise and unimaginative socio-economic and foreign policy choices continue to witness exclusion of the enlightened; and with attuned and seasoned nexus of the inner-coterie, the cartel of self-service, India continues to suffer the “Ruling & Connected Class” and “Business & Political Nexus”; a new-skin embodiment of hegemony, a worse form of colonization by one’s own people. Question this, and one is branded a foreign agent or some such grand-label

• Failing to recognize the natural geyser of human spirit, creativity and abilities, this doctrinarian era witnessed profligate attempts in state planning, control and resources allocation, resulting in wasted decades of human energy, enthusiasm and scarce resources; up until the early 90s, when India was forced to change Her course due to “prolonged Hindu Growth Rate” and accompanying fiscal externalities - a change, not by design, but due to demand

• Grubby and collusive polity, indifferent bureaucracy and insistent governance deficit to the present day continue to exhaust the dreams and desires of Her citizens, a medley of failed promises

• Acute and self-preservation agenda driven, sycophantic, rent-seeking, ineffective and fractured legislature and bureaucracy at every level of the government, always at the ready to self-serve

• Independent, but inundated and ineffective judiciary; where “Time” & “Timely” has very different meaning; an essential democratic institution, which often seems to be cowed-down or manipulated by the political masters, not to ignore it’s own set of well-documented frailties

• Mushrooming media, a significant part which is insistently prescriptive / condescending; increasingly commercial / for-sale to the highest bidder, and nakedly-opportunistic / mind-numbingly dumb; a deliberate & willing abandonment of journalistic core-tenets

- All trying to make a difference (!) to the really deserving, warm, generous, hopeful and aspirant populace, who are keen to shed the age-old image of poverty, helplessness, label of third-world and aid-dependent society; often tentative about internal-intent and external-opinion. In the midst of all of this, a serious clock is ticking, the clock of justice, citizenship entitlement, hope and patience; with alarming despair and all of it’s downside lurking in the background, increasingly evidenced by the growing activism, regionalism, communal divisiveness, social intolerance and violent insurgency. I would argue that, contrary to the many published and often well-intended analytical and / or prescriptive text, India’s shape and composition of development will have to be and will be unlike any, known or imagined, for the



conventional model does not suit Indian coefficients, emotional or practical. The artificially aspirated consumption and expansive credit driven developmental model is not attainable; and if forced upon incongruently, the future will be cyclic-extreme with built in catastrophes. Known levels of resources, technologies and organization of life will not cope with replicated scaling of another 3+ billion stereotype consumers. The world can not afford the boom-bust economic cycle with associated fallouts at that scale. I would argue that, such thinking, if it were, is lazy, rusty and simplistic and will witness continuous course corrections, each one more painful than the previous ones, with increasing human fatigue, polarization and defection from mutual-cooperation, not to forget the material destruction. I would further argue that, World is better imagined as a colorful place, where human citizenship is recognized, accepted and appreciated in it’s native form and where; free people, of freewill, live safely and peacefully, and pursue co-existence, co-operation and inter-connect by choice and out of self-interest; all within assured plurality, tolerance and mutual-respect. Intolerance of any look, philosophy or ways of life is not only un-democratic and hegemonistic; it is plainly unjust, inefficient and unsustainable. History has always tried to teach us this fundamental lesson, alas! We still seem to think and behave as if, this time or with these people, it will be different! The federal structure of India, whilst providing a platform for unity in diversity, maturing-democracy, regional autonomy, and citizen’s voice; continues to stretch and test India’s ability to deliver sustainable, unified, inclusive and progressive governance. Mutual, sustainable and determinant value engagement with India requires:

• Innate intellectual curiosity and disciplined understanding of Her colorful and emotional personality; still a wet-paint from the past, a gallery of current anomalies; thrusting through traditions, faith & fear, hopes & doubts; all within the furnace of Demographic Diversity as one Nation; a true miracle at the present times of infinite unitization in the “Not That Integrated or the Flat World” …

• Adaptive engagement strategies within the realistic boundary conditions, which recognizes India for Her implicit characteristics and desist prescriptive doctrines, for such efforts will invoke resentment and resistance resulting in strained emotions, fragile relationships and most of all wasted opportunities…

• Awareness of Her endowments, constraints and priorities…against a color and heat map of possibilities and priorities, supported by patient



capital…cognizant of Indian point of view… • Courage to accept, synthesize, design and stay-engaged with

differentiated “Development Principles and Approach” - a tailored recipe leveraging the best in class and breed, but designed with and for the ground-realities…

• Flexibility and agility in engaging with Her heterogeneous demography, markets and decision structure - a federated quilt of any number of pixels…

• Deliberate selection and execution of initiatives from within the “Local Planning Cycle”, localized for value at-large, with long-term commitment…an essential for constructive and sustainable engagement

india beyond the beaten-path - 1

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