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CONTENTS
EDITOR Gp Capt R Vijayakumar ﴾Retd﴿, VSM
READERSHIP OUTREACH Gp Capt Dr R Venkataraman ﴾Retd﴿
Sundar R Vakeeswari M DESIGN D Rajaram, Tayub Refai
MADRAS MANAGEMENT ASSOCIATION Management Center, New No.240 Pathari Road, ﴾Off Anna Salai﴿, Chennai 600 006 Ph:044‐2829 1133 / Email:mma@mmachennai.org | mandate@mmachennai.org | www.facebook.com/mmachennai
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EDITORIAL
Gp Capt R Vijayakumar (Retd), VSM
Let's scale even greater heights “Learn from yesterday; live for today; hope for tomor-
prowess in impactful learning experiences. These events
row.”
underscore our dedication to nurturing the next generation of leaders.
W
ishing you a very happy and prosperous New
Year
filled
with
personal
and
professional accomplishments.
training,
and
numerous
activities,
serving
development as
a
gratitude to our esteemed members, partners, and the entire MMA community. Your unwavering support has been the driving force behind our accomplishments.
MMA dedicated 2023 to promoting management education,
As we look ahead to 2024, MMA expresses heartfelt
through
catalyst
Together, let's scale even greater heights in the coming year.
for
professional growth. This commitment extends beyond our esteemed members to the broader community, embodying our ethos of inclusive knowledge sharing.
Stepping into 2024, MMA remains committed to
As we look ahead to 2024,
being the fountainhead of world-class management
MMA expresses heartfelt
excellence in India. Our fusion of Indian ethos with
gratitude to our esteemed
global management practices positions us as a beacon of wisdom and innovation. In 2023, MMA orchestrated an impressive 750
members, partners, and the entire MMA community.
executive development activities, showcasing our BUSINESS MANDATE
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Wishing you a joyous and prosperous New Year
enhance skill sets through education, with the help of
filled with success, growth, and the realization of all
knowledge-sharing sessions with experts. It is vital to
your endeavors.
elevate the level of resources, skill sets, etc. Google revealed that its work on BARD, a generative Artificial
MMA Annual Convention 2024
Intelligence (AI) model, had resulted in a much more
The future of business is not what it used to be.
formidable competitor to Microsoft-backed Open AI's
Radical changes in the business environment and
ChatGPT. Google's new model is called Gemini, and it
technologies are creating new winners and losers. India
can work with videos, images, and, of course, text. The
is the fastest-growing economy in the world today. With
model is already available in over 170 countries and
over 650 million internet users and low-cost data, India
comes as an add-on to BARD.
is one of the largest and fastest-growing digital economies. India is entering 2024 on a confident note with high growth and moderating inflation. Optimism is in the air, and our focus should move to growth that’s more broad-based and inclusive. India is likely to benefit, given the high levels of interest shown by global players in "Make in India." As we think about our next 25 years and leapfrogging into the future, we need to ensure that our growth is broad-based, inclusive, and sustainable. The MMA Annual Convention on the theme "India@2047 – Leapfrogging to the Future" will focus closely on understanding how India can leapfrog into the future and on evaluating the different ways you can keep your business on track. Block your diary on Saturday, 10th February 2024, to be with us at Hotel Taj Coramandel for this one-of-a-kind event at MMA. A galaxy of eminent speakers will be addressing the delegates during the convention. Click to view the brochure and get more details about the convention. Looking forward to seeing you at our flagship event!
AI and Business
In this context, MMA organized a thought-provoking presentation by Mr. Gopi Kallayil, Chief Business Strategist, AI – Google, USA, on “AI for Business” at MMA on 21 December 2023. Please click to watch and understand what AI literacy means for every function and every person in the organization.
The Challenges of Family Businesses India proudly ranks third globally in terms of the number of family-owned businesses, a testament to its vibrant entrepreneurial spirit. This revelation stems from a comprehensive research report that scrutinized 1,015 companies with a market capitalization of $250 million or more. The report further adds that India’s family-owned enterprises are making waves in the Asian business landscape. More than half of the top 30 bestperforming family-owned companies in Asia hail from India. Yet, there is another side to this coin. Emerging family-owned enterprises face their fair share of challenges. The casualties of family disputes range from close relationships to the health of disputants, all of which can have an adverse impact on their businesses and other stakeholders as well.
Businesses globally have invested around $3 billion
In this context MMA is organising a discussion on
in generative AI ventures. The skills of the future
the theme “Beyond Three Generations: The Definitive
revolve around AI literacy. We must be able to
Guide to Building Enduring Indian Family Businesses”
understand what AI literacy entails for every function
with outstanding panellists on 8th January 2024 at MMA
and every person in the organization. We have to
Management Center.
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Click to view the invitation and join us in person or watch the program live.
interesting. In this context, MMA organized a thought-provoking
Chennai Floods The heavy rain caused by Cyclone Michaung in Chennai and its neighbouring districts exposed, yet again, the limits of urban planning. The southern and northern areas of Chennai experienced severe flooding. The
neighbouring
districts
of
Kanchipuram,
Chengalpattu, and Tiruvallur were equally impacted. The vagaries of weather and nature are certainly beyond human control, but what is appalling is that lessons have still not been learned from previous experiences. The lack of preparedness, despite alerts through advanced
one party and virtually one man makes it particularly
technologies,
is
disappointing.
Unless
concrete steps are in place, citizens will continue to struggle.
discussion with experts drawn from different areas of interest on “China and the Emerging World Order”. I am delighted to present in this issue an article on the discussion as the cover story. Please read on or watch the video.
COP ‐28 The conference of the parties to the UN framework convention on climate change (COP -28) concluded its 28th session recently, creating a strong hope that the world would have a better chance of mitigating the climate impact of human induced emissions of greenhouse gases. It was a long journey towards COP28 agreeing to transition away from fossil fuels in a
MMA accommodated a few families affected by the floods from our neighbourhood and provided them with food and other essentials. MMA also, with the support of Danfoss, provided one month's ration to around 450
just, orderly and equitably manner, but it also means no excuses are left not to do what must be done. Let’s hope consumers do watch their life style!
families, which was very well received. Our sincere
In this issue I am also delighted to present articles
heartfelt thanks to Danfoss for their support in
on: Reforming Democratic Processes—Challenges &
thoughtfully planning kits with essential items for the
Opportunities; Our Heritage, Our Pride!; Breaking the
affected families. Click to view a few pictures taken
Glass Ceiling—Chasing the Dream; Empowering Women
during these initiatives.
—Breaking Boundaries and Embracing Strengths; and a brilliant conversation with Mr Madhavan Nair, Former
Thank you, members, for your support!
Chairman ISRO on ‘Rocketing Through the Skies: An Eventful Life at ISRO.’
China and the Emerging World Order The world has witnessed several disruptions in recent years. China’s phenomenal rise has unleashed a superpower competition between Washington and Beijing. The Sino-American summit between President
As always, we would be happy to hear your views, comments and suggestions. Happy Reading…. And a brilliant New Year!!!
Xi Jinping and Joe Biden in San Francisco has caused eyebrows to raise across the world in geopolitical, geoeconomic, and geo-strategic terms. In the last forty years, a single factor influencing the international order, China, stands out. The fact that China is controlled by BUSINESS MANDATE
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Although there has been a marked proactivity and outreach from China, one doesn't see the same adjustment when it comes to South China Sea or India.
The focus now is on getting foreign investment, but they're struggling to get that. While I was in China, they announced a unilateral announcement of visa on arrival for five European countries and Malaysia. The boost that they expected in 2023, from opening up, didn't really materialize. It has sort of fizzled out. The real estate sector is dragging the economy down. In driving around Guangdong, we saw lots of
Mr N Ananth Krishnan
unfinished big real estate projects, with no signs of
Special Correspondent (Hong Kong), The Hindu
I
movement or any construction. There is genuine
spent the last ten days in the mainland China and
concern among private sector enterprises as well, even
had the chance to meet a fairly wide range of
though the Xi Jinping government has taken a lot of
people, not just in the bureaucracy, but in the media
regulatory actions targeting the private sector and
—both Chinese and foreign journalists in China
trying to walk them back. But the sentiment is still very
—businesses, entrepreneurs, and importantly, ordinary
depressed. That partly explains why China in the last
people as well. I saw a big change from 2022 and that
few months, has been trying to stabilize relations with
is the opening up of the country. In March this year, it
the US, Europe, and Australia as well. The China-Europe
was still a very limited opening up. Because of zero
Summit is happening in Beijing. The state of political
covid policy, China's borders were closed to the world
developments in China, is a big black box. But we are
for almost three years. This had a huge impact on the
fortunate to have three very sharp and astute observers
Chinese economy. It still hasn't yet recovered from that.
who will help us make sense of what's happening in China.
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Secondly, China today under Xi Jinping is a very strange mix of hubris, big ambitions, paranoia and readjustment. Xi Jinping has taken the nation back to a vicious cycle in history and made it more vulnerable to future crisis over the succession, ideology and identity by quashing the countervailing factional forces. In the leadership lineup in the 20th Party Congress held last October, he has silenced the opposition. He has, in a way, condemned the party state to greater and covert
Mr Ashok K Kantha,
infighting and factions don't go away in CPC. China
Former Ambassador of India to China
I
clearly had a difficult last three years, in different ways.
recently visited China after a gap of four years and
Zero Covid Policy and Protests
got the distinct feeling that we are dealing with a changed country, which is more inward looking,
more walled in, more insular and struggling to open up and attract more foreigners and foreign investment. Chinese are also not travelling abroad in large numbers, as they used to do. It's a country with a reduced level of engagement with the outside world. That's the first point.
Is Xi Jinping losing the hearts and minds of the people, as some Western scholars have argued? My own assessment is that it is not happening as yet. But there were signs of disaffection. We witnessed fairly wideranging protests last November against the zero Covid policy, which contributed partly to the lifting of that policy. The sudden manner in which it was jettisoned in December last year led to human suffering on a very
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large scale. China was ill prepared for that. According to some estimates, there were more than one million
After four decades of fairly
excess deaths. This is an aspect no one talks about. It
rapid growth, China has entered
reflects how closed and opaque China remains, despite
an adjustment period, which is
four decades of reforms and opening up. We have in
not surprising.
fact, witnessed intensification of the surveillance state during the Covid period. Those trends will continue. Given the multiple pressures that China is under at present, there were expectations in some quarters that there will be some loosening up of grip by Xi Jinping. In the last seven decades of CPC rule, we have seen this cycle of loosening and tightening up of grip by the premiers. But we are not witnessing any relaxation of controls. Indeed, government intervention in the private lives has gone up and there is greater regulation of activities of individuals and communities than what was the case earlier. Xi Jinping’s primacy, both on control of party state apparatus, as also ideological space remains unchallenged and unchanged.
China's aggressive external policies. The country has
Straws in the Wind
undoubtedly lost some of the dynamic growth that was
But there are some straws in the wind, which
evident for decades. In fact, some economists suggest
indicate problems. We are all aware of how, within a
that China’s nominal GDP in 2023, might decline, which
few months of taking over new assignments, the foreign
will be very unusual. It has kept up with the US GDP
minister, the defense minister and the top leadership
increase. China is one of the few economies suffering
of PLA rocket force were all sidelined. There are some
from deflation.
unconfirmed reports that the foreign minister Qin Gang might have committed suicide. There is also some delegation of authority by Xi Jinping. One primary evidence is Premier Li Qiang being asked to chair the Central Finance Commission, which was set up last month, contrary to the earlier practice of Xi Jinping being chairman of everything.
Investors say there has been a net outflow of capital. Even Chinese nationals are investing money outside China in large volume, including through acquisition of real estate, and shifting of funds to Singapore. After four decades of fairly rapid growth, China has entered an adjustment period, which is not surprising. Something similar happened in the case of
Today, the primary challenge for Xi Jinping is
other miracle economies like Japan, Korea and Taiwan,
restoring the growth momentum in the Chinese
but in all cases, the adjustment turned out to be fairly
economy and dealing with the geopolitical pushback to
difficult. In China too, this period is likely to be difficult
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China is faced with a more challenging external environment today. One can notice some signs of tactical adjustment...
and painful. Xi Jinping, since 2017, keeps referring to
not primarily in terms of performance legitimacy and
changes in the world unseen in a century, which is very
delivering high growth rate, but other factors also kick
different from the earlier projection of strategic
in, including selling the China dream or the rejuvenation
opportunities for China. So clearly, there's a recognition
of Chinese nation, by affirming the nationalist
that China is facing greater headwinds.
credentials and sentiments. China today is not looking at outright conflict in various contested theaters,
A Sustained Slowdown in Store?
whether it be Taiwan or South China Sea, or India- China
But I don't quite buy in to the talking down of
borders, but it's trying to make tactical gains
Chinese economy by many Western commentators.
incrementally, through military and economic cohesion,
They are pessimistic assessments, which might be
while staying under the threshold of outright military
fashionable, but I find it difficult to subscribe to them.
conflict.
What is more likely, is the prospect of a sustained slowdown of Chinese economy, which is structural in character, rather than are cyclical. There are internal reasons
which
are
well
known,
including
the
demographic decline, debt overhang, the private sector malaise
of
falling
productivity,
high
youth
unemployment which exceeded 21% in June—when they stopped releasing data; and internal stresses in different parts of the country.
Likewise, after the meeting between President Xi and President Biden, in Woodside, California on 15th November 23, the degree of stability has been restored to their relationship which appeared to be in freefall earlier this year. At the same time, the outcomes of Woodside summit were relatively modest. What we witnessed was more a tactical truce, rather than any reset in ties, or breakthrough on structural challenges in the relationship.
China is faced with a more challenging external environment today. One can notice some signs of tactical adjustment by China in its external behaviour, especially in its dealings with the USA, EU, Japan, Korea, Australia, and Vietnam. There has been marked
China today is not looking at
proactivity and outreach from China. But one doesn't
outright conflict in various
see the same adjustment when it comes to South China
contested theaters, whether it
Sea or India. There is not much desire to show flexibility at this point of time.
be Taiwan or South China Sea, or India‐ China borders...
Selling the China Dream China is moving towards a new social contract, where a monopoly on political power of CPC is justified, BUSINESS MANDATE
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China: A Competitor for US
Japan, Korea, Australia and Vietnam, that we are
Biden was unequivocal that US and China are in competition, whereas Xi Jinping doesn't want to accept the framework of competition. He argues that a major power competition cannot solve the problems facing China, US and the world. US wishes to dislodge China from its perch in the global hierarchy. China is
witnessing today, there is no such reaching out to India. Xi Jinping decided to skip G20 Summit in New Delhi. The post of Chinese ambassador in New Delhi is lying vacant since October last year, for 14 months now. This is obviously not accidental, but a deliberate message to us.
convinced that USA is out to contain China and slow down
its
rise.
This
is
reflected
in
various
pronouncements and comments made by Xi Jinping. There is no ratcheting down of US policies on the export control, technology denial, scrutiny of inward and outward investment and enhanced tariffs. All that is continuing and countermeasures taken by China are also in place. Those structural challenges remain undiminished.
Dr Srikanth Kondapalli
Talking of Indo-China relations, China do not share the urgency and importance we attach to restoration of peace and tranquility in border areas. They do not accept our position that the state of borders will determine the state of relations, and that as long as the borders are abnormal, overall relations cannot return
Dean, School of International Studies, JNU
W
hen we mention about the emerging world order, we also need to factor in the old world order that we inherited since 1945,
especially the United Nations-led world order, where
to the normal track. Indeed, there is a suggestion that
we have the UN Security Council, of which China is a
we should accept the new normal in eastern Ladakh,
member since 1971. We also have G7 and G20 countries,
post April-May 2020. Obviously, we do not accept it.
influencing the world order. We have alliances—NATO
The second point is that the majority view in China today looks at India through the prism of its strategic rivalry with the USA, which is the most important concern for them. They believe that India has been coopted in the US designs to contain China. A minority view still gives India the agency and believes that India will pursue an independent foreign policy to promote its own interest, but increasingly, the former camp,
Thirdly, unlike the tactile outreach to the USA, 16
the US-Japan and US-South Korea alliances. There is the China-North Korea military alliance since 1963. Nobody talks about it. But I think that is very crucial. It has not been abrogated, contrary to the speculation that there is some distance between Pyongyang and Beijing. So, forming alliances is one of the features of this new world order. In the financial and economic spheres, there is IMF
seems to be prevailing.
JANUARY 2024
Alliance, which is quite busy nowadays in Ukraine, and
and World Bank. We have ADB, AIIB and WTO. These are also new forms of influencing the world order.
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Speculation is rife on China
They want non-interference, no structural change and
replacing the United States as
no criticism, if you're employing child labour or involved in human rights violation or environmental
the global hegemon. But for
degradation issues. The Washington consensus has
that, China needs to tweak the
some goals, especially the Paris Club of Donors.
global order.
However, last year, soon after China had unveiled the GDI, GSI and GCI (Global Development Initiative; Security Initiative; and Civilizational Initiative), the Chinese ambassador to Ethiopia has gobbled up the different factions within Ethiopia. It is seen as interfering in the internal affairs of Ethiopia and Kenya. We may possibly see Beijing consensus being tweaked. We need to watch on what exactly the Chinese posture in the future will be. In the emerging world order, the real dynamics would be the rise and fall of states. And here, the 19th Communist Party Congress in China is very important,
China enhanced its voting rights in the IMF. It is now around 6%. India's is about 3%. Special drawing rights are given to the renminbi Chinese currency. The international order that we inherited also includes the arms control and disarmament- that includes NPT, CTBT, FMCT and MTCR. China is not a member of the MTCR but has ratified other international arms control and disarmament measures. China's position here is a little bit conservative. As we look at India's membership in the NSG, China wants membership given to Pakistan, regardless of its WMD proliferation issues.
with Beijing consensus. These are well known positions on regime change, structural reforms and unipolarity. Although Biden now—and Obama earlier—mentioned and
other
issues,
Beijing
consensus is seen as the preferred order by the Chinese. 18
JANUARY 2024
2049. We do not know what exactly is at the end of the tunnel, but it appears that Xi Jinping’s statement in the 19th Communist Party Congress is that China is moving towards the center stage. Speculation is rife on China replacing the United States as the global hegemon. But for that, China needs to tweak the global order.
Influence in the UN Not surprisingly, we see that China is now heading become deputy secretary generals, occupying the
Then, there is positing of Washington consensus
multilateralism
rejuvenation. They call it Socialist Modernisation by
several United Nations bodies or its candidates have
Washington vs. Beijing Consensus
about
because it laid down a roadmap till 2049 for China's
second rung of leadership, such as in WTO, UNIDO and till recently, in the Human Rights Council and others. China is involved in dynamic diplomatic efforts between Saudi Arabia and Iran. They also have a Middle East envoy. There is some initiative in Africa through FOCAC (Forum for Cooperation between Africa and China). In this backdrop, we need to see the events related to
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Taiwan, South China Sea, India-China border, Australia
The multilateral system is fragmenting into plurilateral
and the Senkaku Island conflict with Japan. We need to factor in the Chinese military modernization and
arrangements—small alliances
increase in its hold over various regions in the recent
and specific interests‐based
times.
alliances.
There is contestation at the global domains, maritime cyber space and electromagnetic spectrum. China, for instance, is the leader in 5G technologies. They're also making efforts at 6G technologies. They launched a quantum satellite recently. The cyber domain has been contested. In the BRICS countries, China and Russia push for certain restrictions on the cyber domain. Cyber sovereignty has been invoked. This points to an emerging contest with democratic countries whose constitution emphasizes individual freedom.
Back to the Middle Kingdom? Yan Xuetong and other scholars in Tsinghua
the Himalayan Forum, where they have been teaming
University and other universities keep mentioning about
up with other countries. Belt and Road Initiative is one,
China's preferred order for the Middle Kingdom that
where there is a lot of investment and this is how China
was abolished in 1911 revolution when Qing Dynasty
would like to influence the continental and maritime
collapsed. In the Security Council, China had 17 veto
order in the near future. On water issues, there is a
exercises, mainly related to Taiwan, and also Iraq, Libya,
unilateral approach that China follows with respect to
Syria and Zimbabwe. These are issues which are not the
all the rivers flowing from China to other countries
minimalist foreign policy goals, but also in relation to
including to India.
the maximalist—that is, China becoming a global power.
While China sports a victim kind of mentality on a century of humiliation, there is now a concrete plan to
When we look at the sovereignty principle and the
tweak the international order by China dream; China
UN Charter, there is certain reluctance on the part of
Rejuvenation and most importantly, the Community of
China to accept the 2016 arbitration ruling and ADIZ
Common Destiny. There is a fresh thinking in China
(Air Defense Identification Zone). The Chinese counter
related to the emerging world order. Multipolarity has
piracy operations in the Indian Ocean have some air
also been mentioned in the party congresses, but it is
defense missions. That is likely to indicate a contest
essentially related to conquering the United States or
between India and China in the near future. In the
other countries. There is the United Front, a political
multilateral field, they have the SCO, BRICS and recently
strategy that they adopt on climate change, WTO and
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developmental issues. The recent focus on GSI and GDI points to their desire for a global role. On the maritime order, China has come up with a new concept called comprehensive maritime strength, in which they have identified several issues- not just about naval vessels in which they top the US now with about 348 vessels compared to 296 of the United States. They project that it be 460 vessels by 2030 and wish to be a preeminent power in the Indo Pacific in the near future.
Ms. Indrani Bagchi CEO, Ananta Centre
QUAD: A Chinese Concern
prediction that it will be a seafoam has not happened.
T
China’s irritants include the blue dot network (an
a lot more difficult place to navigate as we go along in
initiative of the US) and AUKUS. China is contesting the
the future. Not only did he raise tariffs against Chinese
world
drones,
exports, but also took a number of actions against
hypersonic glide vehicles, lithium, electric vehicle
China, particularly in the technology sector. All those
technology, 5G, 6G, telecom, rare earth metals and
actions were retained by the Biden administration,
germanium. It is also influencing the outer space. China
indicating that there is a strong domestic push in
considers space as fourth frontier in battlefield.
America to a more confrontational or a competitive
China is concerned about the QUAD, which is influencing
order
the
in
emerging
world
technology,
AI,
order.
swarm
China's
In economy, China is making the 14th five-year
he former US President Donald Trump’s decision to mark China as a strategic rival, set off a series of actions and realignments in the
world. That is still ongoing, and it will make the world
relationship with China.
plan, in which they want to be superpower in 11 fields
The biggest multilateral organization, the United
—high tech manufacturing, quality products, cyber
Nations, is frozen, because the UN Security Council is
domain, education, talent, science & technology,
frozen. China and Russia are on one side; the US and
transportation, trade, maritime, cultural and even in
the Western powers are on the other. There is no global
sports. The question, finally is, whether China is a
office that can take decisions on peace and security
status quoist or a revisionist, if not a revolutionary
questions in the world.
state? My reading is that China is hanging between status quoist and a revisionist state in the international order and would like to dominate the emerging international order. China is a major contender for the emerging world order. The 19th Party Congress and 20th Party Congress have very explicit programs for that emerging world order. 20
JANUARY 2024
The multilateral system is fragmenting into plurilateral arrangements—small alliances and specific interests-based alliances. Not all of them are anti-China or anti-America, but certainly slowly solidifying into definite spheres of influence. Quad is at the apex of such plurilateral efforts, which has India, Australia, Japan and the US. After 2019, it became a high-level
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organization. You can't really call it an organization
share your technology, supply chains and developments
because it doesn't have a secretariat or rules of
in the future. We are looking at a US led—not US
business. But it has been driven by a high-level political
dominated—world. China's closest partners now are
interest in all the four countries. They don't all come
Russia and North Korea. Certainly, Russia is a
together as an anti-China Alliance, although China does
technological partner. China has obviously protested
feature largely in their worldview. A lot of what the
against the Chips Act and is against the economic and
Quad is doing is a mirror of what China is doing in a
technological sanctions. China itself is a fairly advanced
different sphere. It is trying to set the rules of the road
country in technology. It may not be long before China
for a future in technology, biotechnology, defense and
plays catch up or even overtakes the US and that is a
other areas. There are about 23 or more working groups
distinct possibility.
in the technology domain.
For the moment, however, a large part of the
No to Chinese Investments
advanced
Post-Galwan, one of the things that India did was to restrict Chinese investments in India's technology sector. Chinese investments hitherto used to be cheap capital and it was very attractive. India has taken a national security approach to it. India now vets investments in products, technologies, imports, and in critical sectors. In telecommunication, India weeded out China from its 5G system and it is now a largely indigenous system. We are in the race for a China plus one strategy. We have a long way to go, because India has not done manufacturing in the way that China did. But there have been a number of steps that have already been taken. The Chips and Science Act that was passed by the Biden administration last year, has put the brakes on China's own technological development. Even Japan and South Korea have been affected by this act. Unlike the cold war binary situation, we are now walking into a world which has two competing technological systems.
technologies,
advanced
materials
and
advanced systems that were available to China from the west may no longer be available. That has implications for India, certainly. While we like to stretch our space in the strategic autonomy sphere, we are also conscious of the fact that we do not want to play second fiddle to China in a technological universe. We have made a strategic choice to move with the Western world- that is with Europe, the US, Japan and Taiwan. There is a steady progression of Taiwanese companies moving to India, rather than to Vietnam. India, as we all know, is not very hospitable to new businesses, especially advanced manufacturing, because we haven't done that before. India has semiconductor and quantum missions. We have the US-India initiative on Critical and Emerging Technology (iCET) in place and that governs the defense technology development with the US. All this will take a while to develop, to solidify and to be able to be interoperable with western systems. What we are looking now is a world that is in flux. We are entering fairly uncertain waters.
Trust: The New Normal
There are two wars occupying the world right now.
That brings in a very important element in the
The Russia-Ukraine war certainly divided the world into
foreign policy of the major powers. That is the element
two blocks of countries, the West, which condemned
of trust. It is countries that you trust, where you will
Russia, China, and North Korea, which supported
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With a large neighbour like India at the doorstep, these
their own little hedging. In Maldives, the new
countries will always hedge
government has said, ‘India out and China in.’ Five years ago, it was ‘China out and India in.’
their bets with an even bigger
With a large neighbour like India at the doorstep,
power, who is willing to be a
these countries will always hedge their bets with an
godfather to them.
even bigger power, who is willing to be a godfather to them. To Bangladesh, our closest neighbour yet, we've
Russia; and a big swathe of countries like India, which
given a line of credit of $500 million for defense
are neutral. China has announced itself to be the
purchases. Bangladesh hasn't used it. They take almost
champion of the global south. India has done that too,
all their weaponry from China. Sheikh Hasina is playing
by bringing the African Union into the G20. An
her own games there. We have to be nimble and
important development is that every Western country
responsive. But I'm not sure at which point, we should
is now interested in how the global south perceives
decide to be tough. We have tried being tough at
them. They want to attract the global south.
different points and it has not always played out well
There are a number of members of the new BRICS plus. The UAE and Saudi Arabia, two countries which
for us. Certainly, the carrot and stick approach will be in play by India in its neighborhood for a long time.
could have been balancing factors and Argentina and
Ananth Krishnan: When our neighbours are signing
Indonesia, decided not to join the BRICS plus at all. A
on to Chinese tech initiatives like the 5G networks of
little noticed agreement was signed between India,
Huawei, how will that affect our relations with them?
Brazil, South Africa—all members of BRICS—with America on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in Delhi. It just tells you that the world that we have occupied today is a deeply contested world. We cannot predict who will come out ahead. But certainly, it opens the world to greater opportunities for countries like India, if we play in both sides. This will continue as we go along and we will have interesting times ahead.
European Union, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and other countries. They learned a lot from these western countries and graduated into a high-tech nation, specifically in 5G technologies, shipbuilding and a host of other high-tech manufacturing. Despite the US ban model and also announced that they have now reached the nine-nanometer length of the chips compared to
initiatives in our neighbourhood? Indrani Bagchi: China has been pushing for its influence in our neighbourhood for a long time. For Sri Lanka, it didn't matter whether we gave a $4 billion bailout earlier this year. The Chinese exploratory ships are still wandering around Hambantota and Sri Lankan waters. Sri Lankans have hinted that they are playing 22
in technology, courtesy the United States and the
on Huawei, the Chinese have unveiled the Huawei new
Ananth Krishnan: How should India approach China’s
JANUARY 2024
Prof Kondapalli: The Chinese made a lot of progress
the global average of 24 nanometers. They have made progress but it appears it is to mainly showcase or create a wow-effect. The Huawei 5G is quite popular in South Asian countries. India definitely needs to keep in mind the Chinese dominance in the South Asian region’s telecom segment. We must take some countermeasures in this regard.
BUSINESS MANDATE
fountainhead of excellence
BUSINESS MANDATE
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23 JANUARY 2024
Ms Mridula Ramesh, CEO, Sundaram Climate Institute in conversation with Prof. Trilochan Sastry, Chairman, Association for Democratic Reforms. .
A
t ADR, we keep having discussions around the
‘By the people, for the people and of the people,’
country to find out views from the people on
famously said by Abraham Lincoln. We use another
ways to strengthen our democracy. We ask
statement that no office in the land is more important
people the issues on which they are least likely to vote.
than that of being a citizen. Most of the people that we
Recently, after the results of the elections in four states
talk to feel that democracy is very good but they are
have been declared, the Adani group stocks are hitting
not fully satisfied. They think that we can improve our
the upper circuit every day. Election result may affect
democracy.
the share market, if nothing else but does it have an impact on the society?
There are some problems in all democracies of the world, including our democracy. We are divisive. We are
People like us live in a pretty good world. It doesn't
divided along regions, religions, languages and castes.
matter to us who wins or loses. But for the vast
We furiously fight each other in the public domain on
majority of people, their life actually changes in many
various issues. Our political parties also play up to
ways. To give you an example, the Karnataka
something or the other. Then, we have the money power
government promised free bus passes to women. Now,
and muscle power. Tamil Nadu is a leading light in the
the number of women taking the free bus ride and
amount of money spent in elections, perhaps because
going to temples has gone through the roof.
it is one of the most prosperous states. A lot of money
Each one of us will have a definition of what
is distributed to the voters.
democracy is. Each one of us will have a view on whether it's good or bad. We use a well-known phrase, 24
JANUARY 2024
BUSINESS MANDATE
fountainhead of excellence
How can we improve our democracy? Will the
The latest report states that
politicians correct themselves? The Supreme Court
44% of sitting MLAs have a
cannot run a democracy. It can intervene here and
criminal record. We did an
there. The corporates are unable to do anything. The
analysis of 4001 MLAs around
NGO and the media are there and they play their role.
the country. I'm sorry to say
But 20 years ago, we strongly we felt that we—the people —have to do something, even if it is unsuccessful. With
that Tamil Nadu is not a shining
this background, we started ADR more than 20 years
example of probity either.
ago. The latest report states that 44% of sitting MLAs have a criminal record. We did an analysis of 4001 MLAs around the country. I'm sorry to say that Tamil Nadu is not a shining example of probity either. It is just like any other state, maybe marginally better than some of the other states. 43% of sitting members of Parliament have a criminal record. I'm not making a sensational statement.
Supreme Court declared that the voters have a constitutional right to know the background of candidates. The candidates, through a sworn affidavit, now file this information with the election commission. We download these from the election commission website, do some analysis and generate reports. That's where our data comes from. Nobody has challenged them. The percentage of our elected representatives
We went to the Supreme Court and argued that all
with criminal records has, in fact, doubled from 22% in
of us have a right as citizens to know something about
2004, when we first started this activity, to about 43%
the people we are voting for. So, back in 2003, the
now.
BUSINESS MANDATE
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25 JANUARY 2024
The Global Integrity Report says that India struggles with
corrupt institutions. Our reports are published in regional newspapers
promoting transparency and
and magazines. We have filed 120 cases, of which we
accountability and in the
have won about 20 cases in the Supreme Court since
financing of political parties.
2002 or 2003. In one of the early judgements, the supreme court made five disclosures as mandatory. Past criminal convictions, the cases in which charges have
We are proud to be Indians. We are proud that we are doing extremely well globally. But whenever a report comes from outside the country, which seems to criticize us, we become hypersensitive. The Global Integrity Report says that India struggles with promoting transparency and accountability and in the
been
framed,
assets,
liabilities
and
educational
background must be stated by every candidate, in every election. But the Election Commission does not publicize it. It is therefore left to us to bring out the press reports, based on the affidavits that the candidates give.
financing of political parties. According to the 2010
Electoral Bonds: World over, the election campaign
Corruption Perception Index published by Transparency
financing has to be regulated and controlled to make
International, political parties are perceived- not by
democracy work better. In India, we don't have a set of
foreigners—but by Indian citizens, as one of the most
laws and we have moved backwards with the electoral
26
JANUARY 2024
BUSINESS MANDATE
fountainhead of excellence
bonds, which have made the funding opaque. We don't
made a study and gave their recommendations to the
know who is funding who and how much. The law
election commission on what the political parties have
allows you to do that under electoral bonds. We are
to follow. Now the election commissioners enforce that
fighting a case in the Supreme Court against these
the parties should at least follow good accounting
bonds. Our mission is to improve governance and
practices.
strengthen democracy. There are four activities we do. Election Watch: We have state chapters. In Tamil Nadu, our coordinator is a professor in IIT Madras and a top musician. We analyze the data and inform the
Information dissemination is another thing that we do. The fourth thing that we do is advocacy.
The Role of Caste in India
voters through the non-English media. We found that
India is the most diverse country in the world. Over
people who speak English don't vote and people who
500 languages are spoken in India. We are very proud
vote generally don't speak English. So, we try to reach
of our mother tongue. There are more than 3000 castes.
them mainly through the regional media.
We call it ‘jati.’ Even the educated people support people
Political Party Watch: In all leading democracies of the world, the accounts and finances and donations of political
parties
have
to
be
mandatorily
100%
transparent. In India, it's not so. In fact, the electoral bonds scheme is a case which made it more opaque. We had to fight for several years and we finally got one judgment, which says that the Income Tax department shall release the information of the finances of political
of their caste and identify with them. All modernism and sophistication get out of the window, the moment caste factor comes in. Every religion in the world is there in India. Of course, the major religion is Hinduism. The second largest population is Muslims and we have a large number of Christians. We have Jews and we have Parsees. So, we are very diverse. Secondly, there is a huge churn happening in India, which many fail to notice. 45% of Indians are in internal
parties. Based on this, we do our analysis and bring out reports. It is touching the tip of the iceberg. What the political parties declare is a few thousand crores. But what they spend and the money which is put in envelopes and slipped under the door would cross 5 or 10 times of what they declare. Tamil Nadu is a leading example, for the wrong reasons. The political parties declare the audited statements but they use single entry, cash accrual and a cash-based system, not a double entry accrual system, which is the best practice. The political parties were not doing that. Once it came out, the election commission appointed Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI). They
migration. I believe in Kerala, they have bus signs in Hindi because so many Biharis are there. The migrants are flung far away from their traditional families. Most of them are from rural backgrounds. Their traditional family and societal norms are gone, as they migrate. They just float around doing some construction work, taxi driving or whatever work they can do. Third, of course, is the advent of mobile phones. At one point, I read, that the most downloaded songs were in Bhojpuri, because Biharis are the maximum number migrants. They go all over the country. Through mobile phones, they get entertainment, good news, bad news, fake news and everything.
BUSINESS MANDATE
fountainhead of excellence
27 JANUARY 2024
The world inequality report says that the inequality
noticed some good things there. Donald Trump
index in India is rising. There were rich and poor people
appointed a committee of industrial captains, some 20
always down the ages. But in those days, people didn't
of them to advise him. Of course, every president does
know. Now through WhatsApp and mobile phones, they
that. But, in this case, within six months, one by one,
immediately know about the differences.
they all resigned. They publicly said that they disagreed
Change is happening very fast and people look for stability. One of the sources of stability is God and religion. The second is the political leader. People look
with the President on many of his statements and policies. That, I think, is democracy in action for the businessmen.
for some political leader who will solve all their
Here in India, either the top businessmen are silent.
problems. Different political parties try their luck on
Or, they always say nice things about the people in
how to entice people to vote for them. At ADR, we seek
power. This is the Indian mindset. The Americans, at
your views and advice on how we can together
least, are able to assert their individuality and
strengthen our democracy.
independence while we are simply unable to do that. We don't have to be heroes and fight against any
Q&A
government. But we can stick to certain principles, which are universally accepted, be honest, be truthful, do good business and make the business prosperous.
Ms Mridula Ramesh: In your survey, out of 20 governance priorities, people have chosen the encroachment of water bodies as the bottommost. So,
We don't have to necessarily align with any party that comes to power. This, I think, will help increase the tone of discussion in the society enormously.
if I were a politician, I'll say that it's not valued. So
I'm not blaming this government. It used to happen
why should I care about it? In view of the Chennai
earlier also. For instance, when Manmohan Singh was
floods, does this not assume great significance?
the PM, I saw big posters that said Manmohan Singh
Dr Sastry: We have something called as smashana vairagya. This is deceptive, detachment which we get at the burial ground, when we attend a funeral. But this is short-lived. Similarly, after the floods, when people go back to their normal lives, they forget about it and get on with other important things. What are the things that business leaders should keep in their mind when they think about democracy and the direction in which it's headed? I'm not an unabashed admirer of the United States. But there are some good things and not so good things. In some ways, perhaps we are better than them. But I 28
JANUARY 2024
should get a Nobel Prize. Secondly, you must treat your employees well. If you believe in democracy, it doesn't mean that everybody is equal. But you must give equal opportunity and treat everybody with respect and dignity, whether he or she cleans the toilets or is the CEO. Good businessmen do that. One of the things that fascinates me is your book on Hinduism. Is there a connection between your organization and the book? The motivation is spiritual in both the cases. I am inspired by Swami Vivekananda. Whatever we do must be for the good of the world.
BUSINESS MANDATE
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What is your thought on freebies? When the ruling party gives it, they call it welfare. When they're in
You can't expect politicians and political parties to run on love
opposition, they accuse the other party of giving
and fresh air. They need money
freebies.
for campaigns.
Given the inequality in the society, world over, there is some kind of leg up given to the poor. Even America has welfare schemes. But if we are going too far and using it for political gains and competition is the
and the government to work together?
question. Subash Chandra Bose said, “Give me your blood. I'll give you freedom.” Today, our politicians say, “I will give you money. Give me votes.” We can give free education or free primary health services. But when it comes to giving free bus passes and so on, it becomes
We need leadership and that leadership has to come from civil society. The leadership must be willing to put some effort and stick their neck out a bit. Coordination between the corporate, the civil society and the government will not happen without a catalyst. That
a problem.
catalyst has to come from civil society. The civil society How has your experience as Chairman of ADR shaped your perspective of India's democracy? I have great faith in the younger generation. They are the future and hope for democracy. They actively
must engage more meaningfully with the government and the political system. It takes time to build trust. It requires persistence, leadership, gathering of support and using that support to lobby.
look for guidance, but the elders fail to provide the
How can businesses and corporates play a positive
right guidance to young people around the country. We
role in supporting democratic reforms and good
need to do that. In Puranas, we read that after the
governance?
churn, the poison comes first and then comes the amrit (nectar). Our society is now going through the churn.
Politics and elections require money. Let us be honest about it. You can't expect politicians and
Eventually, the nectar will come out.
political parties to run on love and fresh air. They need How can the youth be encouraged to actively participate in the political process?
money for campaigns. It's a reality and we accept that. One big source of that money is the business. You
Firstly, they have to take interest and number two,
should fund them. But you have to extract a pound of
they have to be well informed about various issues. It
flesh, not for the personal benefit of your business, but
is not like supporting CSK just because you are Chennai
for the benefit of society and good governance. Pitch
lad. For instance, MS Dhoni is not from Chennai. Our
your common demands for the good of the ecosystem
support is for emotional reasons. This should not be
and the society. Then things will improve.
the case in politics. Be well informed, learn about
As an academic and consultant, how do you
democracy and get engaged. Then, magic will happen.
balance your focus on corporate strategy with your
How would you get the private sector, civil society
commitment to societal issues?
BUSINESS MANDATE
fountainhead of excellence
29 JANUARY 2024
Is RTI being abused?
In any democracy, we need transparency. All the money in the government comes from
Anything can be abused and so can be RTI. It doesn't mean that RTI should go away. We must understand that the makers of our constitution declared
the people of India either
article 19(1)(a), the freedom of expression as a
through the income tax or
fundamental right. The RTI Act is giving teeth to the
corporate tax or whatever.
fundamental right. In any democracy, we need transparency. All the money in the government comes from the people of India either through the income tax or corporate tax or whatever. So, people should have a
In the Gita, we talk about yagna. There are many
right to know what is happening with that money. The
definitions. Some people give wealth, some give
questions that you ask under RTI really matter. For
products, some give their yogas or tapas as their
example, I cannot ask under RTI, ‘What is your wealth?’
offering to God, with devotion. All of us are privileged
But I can ask, ‘How much money was spent on an
and we are well off. By some miracle, God has given me
airport construction?’ It's public money.
two bits of intelligence and some abilities. I want to use my abilities for the good of society. That is my yagna.
Can you share key challenges you've encountered in advocating for electoral reforms?
When the motivation is reasonably clear, your mind One is criminalisation of politics, which we're
starts functioning better and you are able to balance
fighting in the Supreme Court. If we go one step
multiple roles.
forward, we take two steps backward. The War of What advice do you have for aspiring leaders and
Independence was supposedly started in 1857, which
activists looking to contribute to democratic reforms?
the British call the Indian Mutiny. We got independence
Think about how people will eventually remember
in 1947, after 90 years. With electoral reforms, we've just begun. We are not the only people. There are a lot
you. Don’t you think that asking people, who want to contest elections to declare their assets, violates their right to privacy?
of people working for reforms. Irrespective of challenges, we have to keep at it. At a personal level, we get
harassed
by
the
Income
Tax
department.
Periodically, we get notices. But when I take a risk, I
This is an old debate. The Supreme Court and many countries around the world, have said that if you want to get into public life, then you have to be a little bit
cannot expect that I should be 100% safe. What gives you hope on the Indian democracy?
open. When Nandan Nilekani stood for elections, he
The people of India. The basics of India are very
declared his assets and nobody made a big song and
good. Our spirituality, value system and family
dance about that. Because, he got his money in a
structure are our strengths. There is something sacred
legitimate and honest way.
in our soil. There are challenges but we will keep moving forward.
30
JANUARY 2024
BUSINESS MANDATE
fountainhead of excellence
BUSINESS MANDATE
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31 JANUARY 2024
What psychological barriers or stereotypes do women face when they're striving to break boundaries? Dr Prithika Chary, Senior Consultant Neurologist, in conversation with Dr Saranya T Jaikumar, Consultant Educational Psychologist, Rtn Ms Vidya Srinivasan, Chief Marketing Officer, Tristha Global Pvt Ltd; and Ms Swetha C, Founder‐Director & CEO, Born2Win Social Welfare Trust.
D
r Prithika Chary: The
this
There's a quotation which says, “Why do you want to
discussion is to tell women that it's okay not
be like the rest of the world, when you were created to
to be okay. When there's something that is not
stand out?” So, take pride in standing out.
intention
of
okay with us, we think that's the end of the world. We don't try anymore. We give up and we have people around us who will tell us, “You can't do it. It's not for you.” They fuel further our inadequacy. In a world which
is
fixated
with
idealized
standards
and
expectations, it's very important for each one of us to recognize and celebrate our individual uniqueness.
We have a panel of incredible individuals who exemplify these ethos. Dr Saranya T Jaikumar is a distinguished psychologist who delves into the intricacies of the human mind. Swetha is a trailblazing transgender woman who breaks stereotypes; and Vidya Srinivasan is an inspiring corporate head, who excels despite so many hurdles she might have faced in her
As women, we often find ourselves navigating
life. Let's together explore the power of self-acceptance,
through a maze of societal pressures, stereotypes and
of resilience and the remarkable journey of embracing
constraints. Imperfections are not obstacles, but rather,
our differences to create a world, where every woman
the
about
can thrive beyond boundaries. Remember, it's not about
acknowledging our differences, our struggles, and our
being flawless. It's about being flawsome. It's a word
diverse
as
you would never have heard before. It means being
superpowers. What you think as a limitation, may
awesome, with flaws and all. Let us talk about how
perhaps be something so unique to you - a superpower,
flawlessly, we can be flawsome.
stepping
stones
identities,
not
to as
greatness.
It's
limitations,
but
which distinguishes you from the rest of the crowd. 32
JANUARY 2024
BUSINESS MANDATE
fountainhead of excellence
My first question to the panel is: In your experience, what psychological barriers or stereotypes do women face when they're striving to break boundaries and how can they navigate them?
Dr Saranya: In the Indian setup, women try to satisfy
maid or other supporting persons at home. Let them do some of the jobs and appreciate them for that. Don’t be very judgmental with them and think that you would do a better job than them.
everybody around them—the mother, the father, the in-
Swetha: I was 12 or 13 when I realised I was a
laws, the husband, the children and everybody; and
transgender. I studied in Nungambakkam Boys' High
then, they also try to grow. I think that becomes a
School. I faced discrimination and sexual harassment.
problem. Sometimes, you have to compromise and let
I was made fun of, more so because I was a boy with
go of certain things. Only then, you will be able to
feminine characteristics. When I became part of the
thrive. For instance, I was born cleft lip into a family,
transgender community, I started looking out for people
where women were not given education; I am the first
who are not shy of their gender identity and are able to
graduate in my family. A few of my relatives chose not
challenge the society but they are very few. I am happy
to talk to my parents, because they chose to give me
to share that at the all-India level, people from Chennai
education and they chose to keep me alive. Cleft lip
figure prominently in the list of top transgender
children are considered a sign of bad luck.
achievers. They include doctors, nurses and advocates.
My parents too were insisted by few other family
I am a child of a single mother. When I understood
members that they should not keep me alive. They had
my gender identity, the pace of my education was
to fight and let go of a few relationships in life. That is
impacted. Recently, we were all affected by Covid. But
why, I was able to do something in life and be of some
30 years ago, HIV virus created waves and because of
use to some people around me. Trying to satisfy
that, many people became aware of the transgender
everybody around you is a problem. Have a cook or a
community. Today, like any other disease, HIV has
BUSINESS MANDATE
fountainhead of excellence
33 JANUARY 2024
Each of us has some strength. I worked on my strengths.
you're running, nobody's really bothered if your head is straight or crooked. I represented my school and even the Madras University. When we moved to Chennai, I used to play basketball. I was good at music and
~ Vidya Srinivasan
singing. All these helped me. From a child who used to be shy of people, I'm now the most extroverted person. I have had a 360-degree change. I don't hesitate to talk
become common and there is treatment available. But in those days, it was considered a dreaded disease. That triggered me to start a social organisation 'Born2win Social Welfare Trust' to help and empower the transgender community. For the last 12 years, I have been running this trust. My objective is to help the transgender community; to connect them with the mainstream society; and to help them find a place there. The feelings, emotions and challenges of each transgender are different from that of the other. Despite the challenges, I was focussed on my mission and today many transgenders rally behind me.
to any stranger. I can strike a conversation and get things going. All of us lack something. I don't think you should focus on that. Instead, you should focus on your strengths and make a difference to yourself, and thereby to the world. Women particularly have a terrible habit of self-sabotage. We are so busy criticising ourselves. Please treat yourself with kindness. You deserve it. Whether other people treat you with compassion or not, be gentle with yourself. Saranya, tell us how women can leverage their unique experience and difference in themselves and make it a superpower, rather than a flaw?
Saranya: The words normal and abnormal are contextual. Wearing a sari with a blouse is normal now.
Vidya Srinivasan: I have a problem with my neck. It
But 200 years ago, nobody used to wear a blouse. That
looks like my head is tilted. It's called congenital
was the normal then. I had a friend who came from
torticollis in medical terms. It means that muscles on
France to meet me. I took the friend to a biryani shop
one side are shorter than the other. Because of that,
where they served biryani in one plate. My friend
there are allied issues. For example, I used to wear
remarked why we were eating abnormally because
glasses and it used to be real trouble getting the right
without an appetiser and a starter, a main course
lenses and adjusted to the crooked neck.
appeared strange.
When I was in my first standard, students used to
When I got married, I was only 32 kilos. In our
call me, ‘crooked head.’ I never even felt bad about it.
culture, a bride should be a little plump. But if I was in
Nowadays, we call it labelling. But it really didn't bother
another country where it's okay for women to be that
me. Mostly, I got treated fairly. Maybe, a teacher would
thin, I wouldn't have had that feeling. The kind of
not put me in the front row for a picture or I may not
differences you see in the people in the US, you don't
get to play the lead role in a dance but honestly, I never
see in India. But here, most of them are in one particular
felt discriminated. I was quite comfortable.
way and when I am alone in another way, people see
Each of us has some strength. I worked on my strengths. I was very good at sports and athletics. When 34
JANUARY 2024
me differently. That does not mean, I stop growing and performing.
BUSINESS MANDATE
fountainhead of excellence
Only those that go through trouble and then win
The best way to find your
over, are considered successful. That is the reason acid
opportunity is to go through
attack victims and people with different physical
the obstacles.
challenges are recognized. I am called for so many TED talks, because I was born cleft lip and not for the fact
~ Dr Pritika Chary
that I was the first doctorate in educational psychology. If you have some unique experience, which is good, bad or ugly, it doesn't matter. These are blessings from God. You will be successful and one day you will have stories to tell the people around you. We learn from our experiences. How happy we are with those experiences is what really matters
months to live, let me do what I had to do and enjoy my life as much as I could.
With that attitude,
everything became much easier. I live alone and I was 69 years old when I was diagnosed. It was hard. The journey was tough. But I never gave up because I knew
Sweta. After you started running your organisation, how did you carry on and achieve what you wanted? How did you display your resilience?
Swetha: I am now a national trainer in a communitybased organization. If somebody grows up in any community, people will try to discourage and the same is true in our community too. People said I would not live long. Today, I run my organisation in a sustainable
that there were better things in store for me. I am also a brain health and resilience coach. My comeback is much better than my setback. I think, personally, I'm having the best of my life for the rest of my life. Vidya, what strategies have you found effective in overcoming workplace challenges and biases faced by women in general, if they have any kind of disability and if they are striving for leadership roles?
manner. I am a national and international consultant. I
Vidya: One of the most important things for women
am a Master Trainer in Tata Institute of Social Sciences,
at workplaces is to be unapologetic for being a woman.
Mumbai. All these happened, thanks to my steely
First of all, don't think of gender when it comes to
resolve to achieve something and contribute to the
anything. Think of yourself as one more resource
society. I am now busy 24 X 7. I have been addressing
person there. Then half your problems will be solved. I
many crises that arise in our community. I interact with
come from the branding industry, where luckily a lot
IAS and IPS officers. I do a lot of advocacy programmes.
of women are there. Now I am in IT and again, in IT, lots
We have been requesting the government for LGBT
of women are there. But by and large, I've seen that the
policies. I have written and published 4 books of poems.
biggest stumbling block for women is women
My own biography has been published in Nakeeran
themselves because they are limited in their mind.
magazine. I love who I am.
Second, do not put yourself behind by saying, “I'm
Dr Pritika Chary: The best way to find your
a woman. Can I do this?” We are not confident of our
opportunity is to go through the obstacles. I was
own capabilities. The reason why managers hesitate to
diagnosed in a routine health check up with rectum
push a woman is because the woman herself is hesitant
cancer of grade three in December 2016. I was told that
and doubts her ability to take on that role. Women as
in six months, I had a 30 to 50% chance of not being
such have to work 50% or 100% harder than men to
alive. I was single woman. I thought that if I got only six
prove their place in the world. So, if you have
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then you will be able to continue doing that. I was in TCS working in the R&D department. I was doing very well, but for some reason I thought that was not for me. I'm a people's person. I like speaking to children and spending time with them. I quit my job and went on to pursue psychology. Then, I did everything else in life. There were a lot of people who said I was a fool, leaving a wonderful job to do something that's much smaller than what I was doing. When you stand by your decision and perform, you will be able to succeed. Swetha: Transwomen face lots of challenges. Many of the trans people have come to me saying that they
Many of the trans people have come to me saying that they
want to change their identity or undergo gender transformation therapy, cosmetic surgeries and so on. Some of them even hurt themselves by tying elastic
want to change their identity
bands to hide their breasts. I counsel them not to do that. Clothing can be different from the person. But
~ Swetha
body and feelings are integral to each person. I tell them not to be shy of their physical features and give them the confidence, that if they aspire to become successful
disabilities, take that out of your mind and work on
in any field, they can do so, irrespective of their physical
your strengths.
features. ‘Be proud of being yourself,’ is what I tell
The last point I would like to make is there is no
them.
need to conform to stereotypes. I've been in the
Vidya: We give too much weight to the ecosystem
marketing and advertising business. I handle clients like
and constantly evaluate us against that ecosystem that
Channel V and Bacardi. Every day, we used to have
includes our colleagues, parents, cousins, in-laws,
parties in the night. My job was to ensure that the brand
immediate extended family and the like. Therefore, the
was showcased in these parties. Each day, I would
doubt comes. Once you stop comparing, a lot of these
comeback looking like I've smoked at least three
self-doubt issues will come down automatically.
packets of cigarettes and drunk heavily. But till today, I remain a teetotaller. There is no pressure to belong to any group.
Saranya: Self-doubt starts from somewhere and then build builds up in us. When I was a commission member, I rescued 750 children from different
Saranya: You need to love yourself above everything
situations. I shut down 16 mills and a few schools
else in this world. There is an expectancy theory that
because they were not taking care of children too well.
says you will be motivated to do something, only if
People warned me but I was not really scared of
there is balance. When you enjoy doing something, only
anything. I said that if I have to do good to the society,
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I will do it.
that yesterday is a cancelled cheque. Tomorrow is a
When I shut down one particular mill in Tirupur, a few of their supporters went on to release a morphed
promissory note. Only today is cash in hand. Make every day the most wonderful day in your life.
image of me on the internet. It went viral and I was very
The desire for perfectionism also blocks us. Many
upset. That's when the real self-doubt started. But there
years ago, I was the real perfectionist. I would be very
were a lot of people who said, “No. You're doing a good
fussy about everything and they had to be just exactly
job and because of you, so many children have been
as they were supposed to be. Over the years, I found
saved.” My self-doubts slowly vanished with such
that it made me unpopular. I changed. What difference
positive people around me. Psychology says that when
does it make whether a bottle is here or two inches
you have more positive people around you, your self-
away? It is more important to progress, rather than be
doubts will vanish completely.
perfect. There is beauty even in imperfection. You cannot be everything to everybody. There will always be somebody better than you and somebody who is not as good as you are. So don't compare. Be your best self and work on making a better version of yourself every single day. Then there is something called the impostor syndrome. It makes you feel that you're flawed, in spite of your accomplishments. You feel that you're not really competent and you don't deserve any praise for what you achieved. We fool ourselves that way. That's a kind of self-sabotage. Show people what you do best. Don't feel shy. You may paint or sing or play the saxophone.
Maybe, you are not at a professional level. But it's your
People are basically good hearted. They want to help you.
skill and an achievement. The last point that I want to discuss is, exposing
But you have to show them
our vulnerabilities. For instance, when I had cancer, I
how they can help you.
asked for help, though I am a very independent person and don't generally ask for any help. I realized I was
~ Dr Pritika Chary
living alone. I've got two sisters whose health is worse than mine. I can employ somebody to take care of me.
Dr Pritika: We say that you are the sum of the five people you spend most of your time with. We must have the ability to stay in the present and not rue about the past, or worry unduly about the future. Remember
Fortunately, I could financially afford that. But who's going to hold my head when I'm vomiting after chemotherapy? Who's going to be beside me when I feel sad?
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People are basically good hearted. They want to
least one person in our life, whom we can call for
help you. But you have to show them how they can help
anything, at any time of the day or night. It can be
you. That's exactly what I did. I exposed my
anybody—a friend, colleague, husband, wife, cousin or
vulnerability. I called up my friends and told them,
uncle. You don’t even think twice before calling them.
“Listen. I need you to give me a lift every day to the
Work on establishing that kind of bonding and
hospital for my radiotherapy. I need three of you to
relationship.
look after my special diet.” My friends rallied around me and my whole journey of the cancer treatment for two years was fantastic. That's why I'm here today to talk to you. Don't feel bad to ask for help when you need it. In fact, there was one patient who was admitted with a stroke. She had a son. Nobody else was there. When we lifted the patient and put our hand under her armpits, we felt something on her right breast. When we examined her, she had a huge right breast malignancy that must have been going on for more than a year apparently. That spread to her brain and she died later. When I asked her son, he said, “Madam. She never told me about her problem.” Stop being a candle, giving light to everybody and melting yourself. On the contrary, be an oil lamp. Burn bright in your own flame. You'll be capable of lighting many other lamps.
Q&A What are the recent trends in psychology to solve our problems?
Saranya: The recent advancement is cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT). We have something called mindfulness-based CBT, which is nothing but one that has most of the concepts of yoga. The ancient Indian yoga is so valuable in taking care of our physical and mental health. We are rediscovering what India had all
Vidya: When everybody tells you that you're a superwoman, it gives you a high. Then you start
this while and giving it different names. Yoga is definitely a very good practice.
believing in that, you go on stretching yourself and end up as a nervous and mental wreck. We must realize our How can we instil a sense of empowerment and strength in young girls from an early age?
limits. Saranya: In this digital world, young girls are very conscious about how many followers and friends they have. I feel, having so many followers or friends on social media doesn't matter. If you have a problem, immediately, to whom can you reach out? Even five of them is sufficient.
Vidya: When somebody does something, praise them. When they do something wrong, gently tell them how it needs to be done. Don't criticize them. This gives positive reinforcement to young girls. When they grow up, they will be self-reliant, confident and ready to face the world.
Dr Pritika: I always say that we should all have at 38
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Swetha: Young girls must develop their skills. Skill development is gender-agnostic.
and gave her children is amazing. Swetha: My mother is my inspiration. I am here today because of my mother.
How can we ensure that empowerment efforts are inclusive and that they consider the diverse experiences of women?
Dr Pritika: Empowerment does not mean that there is no variety. Everybody cannot have the same type of empowerment. To me, exposing my vulnerability was an empowerment. When we undertake empowerment initiatives for a large group, we do take into consideration the diversity of the group. It has to be a generalized empowerment first, and then maybe narrowed down to individual empowerment.
Vidya: My mother didn't live with us so long. In my case, my father doubled up as my mother. It need not always be a female inspiration. Dr Pritika: Most of those who inspired me to become a successful woman were all men, especially because I'm in the field of neurology. I was the first lady to do DM in Neurology in Madras Medical College. When I was doing my MD, I was the only girl in a class of 20 boys. I have many male role models in my career. Every person we meet, leaves us with something, which is inspirational. If you're open to it, you will notice it.
How can we encourage more women to become role models and sources of inspiration for others?
Dr Pritika: The best way to encourage other women to grow and which is lacking very much in our society, is mentorship. When one woman stands up for herself, she actually stands up for 100 other women. When one woman decides to allow more women around her to grow, she must mentor them. That is the way you empower others.
When you close yourself to it, you will miss it.
How does media representation influence the perception of women’s strengths and capabilities?
Vidya: I've done a lot of work with the media industry.
They
have
their
priorities.
From
my
experience, I would say, ‘Please do not take anything that the media says at the face value but with a pinch of salt.’ I'm not saying every journalist is biased. Most of them are very good. The advent of social media plays
Who are the women that have inspired you in breaking boundaries and embracing strengths?
Vidya: There are so many women, starting with my mother. I'm a very good cook because my aunt inspired me. Dr Pritika Chary is a Rotarian colleague, and she's a great inspiration for all of us.
a very big role, because the communication comes to you directly from the source, in which case, the validation becomes easy. Sweta: I feel the media is not fully educated about the LGBT community. We need more awareness and understanding of our issues and challenges amongst
Saranya: My grandmother who lost her husband at the age of 38, with eight children is my big inspiration. She was a widow in Sri Lanka and then she had to come to India with all her children. She was not educated. She had nothing at all in life. And from there, what she built
the media fraternity. Saranya: There's a saying which goes, “No matter what. Get up, dress up and show up.” Keep going. We will all be successful.
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Three achievers from traditionally male dominated sectors discuss about what it takes to build their dreams and catalyse change. Ms Roshni Raju, Founder, MED‐bites Pvt Ltd led the conversation with Ms Archana Kalpathi, Creative Producer/CEO, AGS Cinemas and Ms Rohini Manian, CEO, Global Adjustments. .
R
oshni Raju: We are privileged to say that the
My dad said, “Why didn't you go and turn it around and
metaphoric glass ceiling extends beyond
flip it?” That was given to me when I was 21. I was living
gender. It encompasses the multifaceted
in Ooty by myself. There was a lot of fun. I got to learn
struggles, obstacles and barriers that individuals face,
many aspects, because real estate, as Rohini would say,
when striving for excellence in their professional
has a lot of nuances to it. There are government
journeys. Today, I hope to dive into some interesting
approvals and handling contractors and vendors. For
stories by Rohini and Archana, who have defied
hotels, you need to learn a whole new skill set. So that
conventional limitations by setting up their respective
was my first project. We bought the hotel, renovated
businesses and by challenging the status quo and
and then sold it.
redefining success. Rohini, you had a brief stint in Daimler before joining Global Adjustments; and Archana, you were offered roles in IBM, Google, and had
Roshni Raju: After that, how did you enter into multiplexes and movies?
a brief stint in turning around hotels before starting
Archana Kalpathi: I like design. I like managing and
AGS cinemas. How was your journey? How did you get
running hospitality. I love movies. The old Royal Theatre
to where you are?
came up for sale for four crores. I convinced my dad to
Archana Kalpathi: I come from a family business. My family was into the IT and IT services industry. I'm a computer science engineer and that's what I studied. We sold our business to Rakesh Jhunjhunwala. My first
invest in that. I told him we have only few multiplexes. Satyam had renovated and Inox had just opened. I thought it was a good idea to have a multiplex chain in Tamil Nadu. So that's how the idea started.
project was in Ooty. It was the old Dasaprakash hotel. BUSINESS MANDATE
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Roshni Raju: What change have you brought into
Being a much younger person, the first thing that I had to do
your companies or to the industries that you're in? Rohini Manian: I've taken it global. We were always focused on India. Now we have a global market. We look
was to earn the respect of all
at real estate, focussing on India, Dubai and the United
the people who work for us.
Kingdom. That was a very big change for us. The second thing, we've incorporated technology and automated a
~ Rohini Manian
lot of things and made the process more transparent for our customers.
Rohini Manian: Archana and I went to school together and it's nice to reconvene over here. My story is a little similar. My family was in infrastructure. My grandfather started an infrastructure business. By the time I was ready to join the workforce, my father had sold our infrastructure business to one of the world's largest players Eurabia. From there, he got into real estate. When I came back, I thought I needed to have a little bit of professionalism and work with an MNC. So I joined Daimler. I realized very soon that my passion was real estate. Now I always say my first love is real estate. That's how I ended up joining the family business. 42
JANUARY 2024
Archana Kalpathi: I have been in this business for about 17 years now. It's a long journey. The movie business was very fragmented when we started. There were multiple small players. Now, there are a few larger players in the multiplex space and the movie making business has transformed. We have corporatized it to a reasonable extent. In both our production houses, we don't deal with cash. That is one of the biggest changes that we have made. We've also been working with the government to try and get industry status for the film space as well. It's a long way to go but these are baby steps.
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You also need to get a team to trust you. For that, you need to consistently show up every day, irrespective of whatever happens. ~ Archana Kalpathi
Roshni Raju: Today, technology and AI are impacting different industries. How are you adapting to that change?
because audiences will catch on to it very quickly. We have to always do the latest. Roshni Raju: It's difficult to stay current without
Rohini Manian: Being a much younger person, the
losing your current position. Gaining respect and
first thing that I had to do was to earn the respect of
trust, I would say, is part of the metaphoric glass
all the people who work for us. They worked for my
ceiling. Do you have any anecdotes you can share
mom and dad earlier and I had very big shoes to fill. I
with us of how you went through that experience?
had to know my industry really well. You have to know twice as much, if you have to get other people's respect. After I worked on that, I could value add to the team. I brought in the changes by automating things through software. I got a good company to come and develop our own app. Our customers have real time information. Everything is now much faster and smoother.
Rohini Manian: When I decided to join global adjustments, I was very young. I had to give respect and listen to my team. I had to make them feel that I'm an ally and I really care about the amount of work and effort they put into our companies. They are the core and backbone of our company. That was something that I did. The second thing is, I worked twice as hard, so I
Archana Kalpathi: We have to be very current and
got to know more. Once you know more, people respect
relevant. Because in cinema, everything changes. AI and
you and it's much easier and smoother to work
tech are very big things for us. 15 years back, even
together.
projection was not digital. It was analog. Now it's all digital projection. The amount of VFX that is being done in films now is very high. Out of two hours and 40 minutes of a movie, 90 minutes is CG (Computer Graphics). The way films are being shot now has changed. It's all green mat. We are in the process of rolling out artificial intelligence-based production studios, which is going to be the next big thing. The whole concept of making a set and shooting in the set will go. It's all going to be virtual reality production. AI is also taking away a lot of jobs in our industry
Archana Kalpathi: I was privileged, because I was lucky that my parents had enough money to invest in my idea. You also need to get a team to trust you. For that, you need to consistently show up every day, irrespective of whatever happens. Failures do happen. But I build trust by breaking things, then fixing it and then breaking it again. I continue to do so. That's how you can end up finally breaking the glass ceiling. Roshni Raju: Can you tell us one of the things that you broke and fixed?
now. We used to have colourists and artists. Right now,
Archana Kalpathi: When I built the first multiplex, I
there is a strike in the US where they are opposing a lot
didn't know I had to get 14 licenses from the
of companies from moving to AI and insisting on having
government. I just thought I needed a building approval.
people in the workforce. It is a challenge for us. But
I got the CMDA approval. When I went for a C form, I
cinema has always been at the forefront of adapting,
was told that I needed all the other approvals. I was 22
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or 23 then. It took me a year and a half to go and sit
blessed to have a very understanding spouse and that
with every officer and apologise to them. I told them I
is half the battle won. He is not a very traditional
made a mistake and asked them how to fix it. My family
spouse. He carries half the load. He's a co-parent in
had no idea about the business either. So, no one could
every sense. I'm lucky for that. But it is tough.
come and fix it for me. You learn by making mistakes.
Sometimes, I would take my child with me to work. I
You must have the courage to face it as well.
believe that for women to be able to progress, you have
Rohini Manian: I tried to start various other businesses by being the investing or the silent partner. With three of my businesses, I just had to cut my losses
to see your child as a part of you. I would never feel embarrassed to take him with me to my office or let him run around and do his own thing.
and hence shut them down. I'm also lucky that I had
Rohini Manian: I went back to work when my
the ability to do that. But it taught me a very important
daughter was nine days old. I never took time off, since
lesson on doing what you're really good at. I have
then. I have a really supportive family. That was very
decided that anything I do will be allied to real estate.
helpful to me, especially because I'm a single parent. It
Roshni Raju: One similar point that the three of us have is that we were all pretty young getting into business. I was 24. You both were around 21. The age definitely was not on our side when we were starting business. But starting early, I felt like half the battle was
was very important for me to have that support system. I'm still figuring out the mom guilt. But my daughter is also very understanding. I tell her that I have to go to work and that's my responsibility like school is hers. Roshni Raju: How do you unwind? We said that there is no work-life balance. I definitely struggle
won, in any arena that I was in. Archana Kalpathi: I'm super thick skinned. It doesn't get to me at all. In AGS, we have a policy of dressing up in uniform: T-shirt and jeans. I'll be at the box office or at a concession selling popcorn and some customers would have an issue and start screaming. I would go and tell them, “Can I help you?” They will say, “Please call the manager or someone senior.” I can't tell them that I own the place. But honestly, that's wonderful. Rohini Manian: I used to go to a lot of international conferences on real estate and relocation. At 22, when I introduced myself as the CEO, people would be
drawing the line between bringing work home and making sure that my kid doesn't realize that what happens at work stays at work and what happens at home stays at home. But do you have any sort of meditative activities or any unwinding things that clear your mind at the end of the day? Rohini Manian: For me, it's fitness. I really enjoy the one hour that I do- kickboxing or my workout or anything like that. It gives me that release. It gives me the space. Also, I love to spend time with my dogs. I have seven of them. Archana Kalpathi: I hardly get much time and I think
curious as to what this kid was trying to do. Roshni Raju: How do you balance motherhood and professionalism?
in my industry, you definitely need mental health. I read a lot. That is my way of unwinding. I just love to read. Now I end up reading a lot of scripts.
Archana Kalpathi: I'm quite forgiving myself. I am 44
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Q&A
Can you share specific strategies or initiatives you have implemented to break the glass ceiling in the entertainment sector?
Archana Kalpathi: I don't think I've yet broken that. You are part of the cinema industry. How do you encourage diversity and inclusion within your organization?
Archana Kalpathi: It is very difficult to achieve diversity because we are about 95% men in a film set.
I am taking small steps. Being a producer, I listen to stories and make sure that people actually watch it. If I can have at least 50% women on our production teams, then I may consider myself breaking that ceiling.
But what we are trying to actively do is at least get interns from various colleges to come and do internships in production departments. With cinemas,
How do you contribute to the empowerment of women in the healthcare sector?
it is relatively easy, because it's like any other
Roshni Raju: I don't quite provide jobs in the
hospitality business. With respect to making films, I am
healthcare sector. Mine is more in the marketing space.
actively looking for young directors and young DOPs
I look for graphic designers, 3D artists and content
(Director of Photography), so the team will always have
creators who are females. I look for doctors, especially
at least one or two women. We, as a company, insist
women, who are in the second phase of their life, where
that they take and we provide a very safe environment
they're balancing a family and are no longer able to
for them. It's a responsibility for us because we travel
practice and so they're able to write. I do encourage
across the world. We put them in situations where it
women empowerment.
can be unsafe. That's an extra responsibility. But I think we need to do it, because I want to see this at 50% at How do you see the intersectionality of gender and cultural intelligence, playing a role in leadership?
some point.
In navigating the fields of business and culture, what strategies have you found effective in promoting gender equality and breaking barriers?
Rohini Manian: In our office, I'm happy to say my entire leadership team is women. One of our core things is encouraging women. We have a foundation where we champion women. We are very keen on gender equality.
Rohini Manian: We work with 89 nationalities. At any given point in time, we'll have about 30 different nationalities of customers, of different genders and cultural intelligence. It's all about having emotional intelligence. We've trained our team to respect and understand different people's cultures, thoughts and opinions.
When we are hiring, we have a full diversity policy, where we look at taking people onto our team, who have special abilities. We've been successful in doing that. It goes a little bit with our value system and culture.
How did you overcome challenges in the traditionally male dominated film industry to reach the position of CEO at AGS cinemas?
Archana Kalpathi: I think, with a lot of luck. I also think I didn't give up on consistency, hard work and showing up every day. BUSINESS MANDATE
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marketing seven years ago, it was a taboo, because Did you face significant gender biases in your industry when you entered?
Archana Kalpathi: We can't let it affect us. That is
ethically, you cannot market medicine. But today, people are moving around to the mindset of educating and propagating a message in medicine.
where being thick skinned helps. No one should be able to stop you from doing or achieving your dream, because you have one life, and you have one chance at what you want to do.
How do you see the future of multiplexes in the era of OTTs?
Archana Kalpathi: The future is quite bright. There was a slump, right after Covid. But now people are back to the theatres. In fact, for producers, OTT is a big boon.
As a founder of a content production company in the healthcare sector, what advice do you have for aspiring female entrepreneurs looking to break through in this industry?
Roshni Raju: Turn up every day, and be consistent with what you're doing. When I started medical
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For theatres, there was a small dip, but now they are getting the maximum amount of revenue for any cinema. I think OTT will probably find its own space, just like how satellite TV did at one point of time. Theatre is a social experience because you come on a date, with your friend or your family.
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Exploring the different aspects of our heritage and understanding the nuances of owning it and expounding it. Dr D K Hari and Dr Hema Hari, Founders & Trustees of Bharath Gyan and authors of several books, jointly delivered the lecture as part of the Fifth R K Swamy Memorial Lecture.
F
or more than 5000 years, we have used signages.
logical basis. We have vowels and consonants. They are
We can spot the world’s oldest signboard in a
based on the sounds that come out unobstructed from
place called Dholavira. We find these signs along
any of the contours of our mouth. If we want to say ‘ka,’
the entire stretch from Tahiti to Phoenicia. Interestingly,
we have to modulate it with the parts of our mouth. Our
in all these areas, we find a lot of the influence of the
ancestors understood the anatomy of the buccal cavity
Bhartiya civilization. Unfortunately, many people think
and how the sound comes for each letter. People who
that Indian civilization is very limited, geographically.
tried to trace the source of the alphabets and their
Today we find difficulty in communicating across states. But 5000 years ago, Indians were communicating across continents and across ages. There is a lot of similarity between the Rongorongo Easter Island script in Tahiti and the Indus Valley Harappan script. Phoenicia at the other end is supposed to have been the source for the Western alphabets, which is why we have words like phony, phonetics, etc. It was a precursor for Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, Latin and then English.
sequence compared it with the Indian alphabets and concluded that it was the Indian alphabets, which have travelled to Phoenicia. A couple of swaps have happened, which therefore have yielded the order of ABCD that we see today. You can find that in a paper written by Wim J Borsboom. He says that while copying, there were two errors of historic proportion.
Mesmerising Swaras and Our Notations Yet another beautiful example is the saptha swara.
In the English, Roman or Arabic alphabets, you do
Music is very natural and everybody can sing and make
not have a solid explanation for the sequence. For
melodious sounds. But science comes when we want to
instance, why does A come first, followed B, C and D?
translate that sound into a written form that we can
But the sequence of all our Indian languages has a clear, 48
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read, recall and reproduce. That is when we need the notations to represent the melodious notes. In India, we talk about the seven notes of sa re ga ma pa tha ni.
Similarly, in the western music, we have Do Re Mi Fa
We have named our land Bharat and it has many
Sol La Si. Why are they so similar? Who got it from
meanings. One of them means
where?
speech.
Interestingly, in India, we are able to explain scientifically the logic behind the notes. Our ancestors figured out where the sound originates from inside our body. They picked up animals, whose sounds if we
John. Even with the Japanese music notes, they trace it
imitate, we can create the same resonance. When you
to the starting letters of certain hymns. The point is,
try to sing ‘sa,’ you have to get the sound out from your
in Western classical music, you don't have any
navel and you can equate it with the sound of a peacock
explanation. It's got a glass ceiling whereas in the Indian
that comes from its navel. They named the first note as
thought, it goes all the way up to nature or prakriti.
Shadja. It means ‘born six times.’ When we sing ‘sa,’ the sound passes through six nodes -the navel, chest, throat, tongue, teeth and lips. They understood the logic of sound, music, script and everything about the vocal cord system, so scientifically.
We have named our land Bharat and it has many meanings. One of them means speech. We decided that we won't stop with speech, but wanted to preserve the speech. We went into the mode of writing. It is a myth that in India, every knowledge was given orally. Today,
For the western notes, they trace it to a hymn of St.
we have difficulty in communicating between one state
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We had Mudra for hand signs; We transcend both mind and matter. Today people
Karana for Abhinaya. For the face signs, we had the rasa ‐the
talk about mindfulness. But we have been elaborating it for 5000 years. We've had different mediums and
navarasas. For music, we
based on the need, we have chosen the mediums. We
organized it into melodies and
have written certain things on cloths, some on
ragam. For words, we had vakh. That's idea and this has been
manuscripts and some on stone.
India’s Role in Global GDP Phoenicia is the Eastern Mediterranean. The ancient
the language of the Vedas as
Phoenicia had places like Tyre, Sidon, Byblos, and
well.
Arwad. The word ‘book’ has its origin in Byblos. The words like Bible, Bibliotech and Bibliography all have
in India and the other state. 4000 years ago, our traders
roots in Byblos. In Europe, they wanted to understand
went and traded from Tahiti to Phoenicia and
how the Eastern, Asian and Oriental countries fared in
communicated with people. They didn't know the
economy vis-à-vis- the economies of the West. British
language of other people, but still they were successful.
economist Angus Madison in his report writes that one-
They used symbols and signages. They used aksharam,
third of the world trade happened from India for about
with which they wrote literature.
1700 years -from the year one to 1700. No other country has held sway for 1700 years, getting one-third of the
Mind and Matter
world’s GDP. Sadly, today, if you go and look for such
They used the word ‘shreni’ for a trader. He is an
reports, you will find graphs that show our economy
aggregator in Indian context. Traders aggregated
collapsing and on the decline. But in reality, we have
produce from various small-scale units all over the land.
grown from to 1 and steadily been at 33% for 1700
We have been a decentralized land. Figuratively, they
years. Only due to various invasions, our decline started
used the symbol of a squirrel to represent a trader. A
much later.
sword was denoted by slashes, because slashes represent cuts.
For our successful stint in trade and commerce, our communication skill was one big factor. We were also
We had Mudra for hand signs; Karana for Abhinaya.
good in accounting. We traded not just spices but also
For the face signs, we had the rasa -the navarasas. For
steel, zinc, copper and various alloys, cotton and silk,
music, we organized it into melodies and ragam. For
dyes- indigo and madder red, besides sugar and
words, we had vakh. That's idea and this has been the
diamonds as well. We had large ships for logistics. Not
language of the Vedas as well. We had the symbols and
only did we build ships, but also, exported them. We
also symbolism. We have addressed the various layers
have heard of ‘The Merchant of Venice’ by William
in and had a good handle in communication. We
Shakespeare. The merchants of Venice were, in fact,
approached it all the way from ‘Om’ which is Pranava
trading and making profit using Indian sugar. Though
or the subtle. From the subtle, we moved to our written
sugar is sweet, the story behind sugar is bitter. Indian
scripts and alphabets which is the gross.
sugar has influenced the world’s demography. We
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always talk about silk route. But we had a 5000-yearold metal route from India, all the way from Hanoi in the east to Haifa in the West. Sadly, we never speak
Q&A
about it, which was our strength.
Trading, A Noble Profession The word navigate comes from our word ‘navi.’ To refer to trade and commerce, we used the word,
How can technology be leveraged to preserve and promote cultural heritage?
‘vanijyam.’ It means that in speaking, you have to be sweet. A trader was called ‘shreni’ or ‘shreshta’. It
Dr Hema Hari: There are several layers of technology.
means ‘noble.’ While in the west, they said, ‘buyer
We can use it to showcase our heritage and also to lay
beware,’ implying that traders would cheat. Whereas
claim to our heritage. We can use technology to further
ancient India considered traders as noble people, who
our own knowledge by looking at relevant applications.
spoke sweet words and the truth and delivered quality
We talk about five A's: Awareness; Appreciation;
goods. We also call ‘shubh labh’ or auspicious gains.
Absorption; Adaptation and Application. In all these five As, technology can play a role.
We have had various ways of communication and excelled in communication. We brought in science to the art of writing and sounds. We resorted to symbols and signs to convey a larger concept, rather than
Our water bodies have been our pride. But have we not abused them?
speaking too many words. One of the best examples is
Dr Hari: The British realised that water bodies are
Sri Sukha Brahma Rishi. He is depicted like a human
our backbone and they wanted to break it. The water
with a parrot face. Why does he have a parrot face?
bodies were maintained by the local people and
He is the son of Veda Vyasa who compiled the Vedas. Sukha Brahma Rishi transmitted that to the rest of the world. You needed somebody with the ability of a parrot, to listen and to take in all that and then just repeat that without any distortion. Sukha Brahma Rishi stands not just for the idea of transmission, but transmission without distortion.
especially, women of the land. The British created the Public Works Department (PWD) and took over all the water bodies into the department. 100 years later, in the name of secularisation, we de-divinised our water bodies. These twin blows led to diminishing of all our water bodies and uncontrolled pollution of the water bodies,
right
from
river
Ganga.
Cleaning
and
maintaining the water bodies must be a national
These are just some of the aspects of our heritage
discourse. We must take care of them and recover them
and our pride. First, we have to know our heritage; then
for the next century.
we have to own it or stake claim to it; and then we have
How can we tell our heritage stories to future generations?
to expound it. Bharat also means a land of knowledge. No other country calls themselves a land of knowledge.
Dr Hema Hari: We find lots of tools, both for presenting online and also for experiencing them digitally, like VR, AR and so on. The foundation that we
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manage- Bharat Gyan has the tagline, ‘Experience the
saw our skills and exploited them for their own needs.
knowledge of India.’
There is no authentic Indic
They took our ships and colonized the world. Britain
narrative about our own civilization. We have got into
could not have colonized the world but for the Indian
the act of collecting the data and documenting
ships, Indian sailors and the Indian metallurgy.
everything. We have made over 780 short films, each of 150 to 200 seconds duration, which are quite popular.
Dr Hema Hari: In 1453, the Turks took over Constantinople. Till then, the Byzantine Empire was there and it was favourable to the west. All our products
How can education play a role in instilling a sense of pride and appreciation for one's cultural heritage? Do you think it should be included as part of school and college level education?
used to go from Tahiti to Phoenicia through the strait of Turkey. The Turks blocked this route and cut the west from the east. The western countries were starving
Dr Hema Hari: We have conducted courses on
for our goods. They wanted to find a route and started
heritage and offered them for free. We have spoken to
travelling. Till then, they never came to India and it was
so many people and talked about including heritage in
only the Arabs who had been to India.
the curriculum. There is acceptance of the idea but beyond that, not much has happened. Unless there is compulsion, people may not be willing to study these information. Fortunately, the new education policy has brought Indian knowledge system to the school level and also for colleges. It is a very good initiative. Hopefully, it will pave the way for the knowledge to get into the system and in the community.
In 1488, Bartolomeu Dias sailed around the southern tip of Africa in the hope of finding India. That is why, the southern tip of Africa is called the Cape of Good Hope. At that point, his ship sank. In 1490s, when they discovered that the world is round, Christopher Columbus
sailed
westwards
to
find
India.
He
circumnavigated the globe, taking the biggest ship and landed in Canary Islands. The first landmass that he
What has been ancient India’s role in promoting navigation?
encountered, he wrongly thought was India. That is
Dr Hari: The Star-Spangled Banner is the US Nation
how, the name West Indies came. The people there were
Anthem. It was written in the Boston Harbour, on an
called Red Indians.
Indian ship. Indian ships had travelled to Europe and
In 1497, Vasco de Gama took the largest ship from
from there, across the Atlantic to East Coast of America
Portugal and he came up to the Cape of Good Hope.
and to the West Coast. We were not only transporting
There he saw Indian ships that were 10 times the size
our goods but also, selling our ships. The oak ships had
of his ship. Escorted by these Indian ships, he sailed
30 to 40 years of marine life. But Indian ships made of
past the Cape of Good Hope and reached Calicut. There
teak wood had 100 plus years of life and they were ten
he was welcomed by Samudra Raja- the king of Calicut.
times larger than the ships made by others. We've been
As they were not able to pronounce his name, Samudra
excelling in navigation from more than 5000 years. We
Raja became ‘Zamorin.’ So, that is our proud history
have records of the Greek talking about the iron that
and heritage. Finding India was a hope for the world
came from India, for the arrow heads in their battles.
and hence the name ‘Cape of Good Hope.’
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MMA organized a discussion on the theme of the book, ‘Rocketing Through the Skies – An Eventful Life at ISRO’. The author of the book Mr G Madhavan Nair, Former Chairman, ISRO was in conversation with Mr S K Das, IAS ﴾Retd﴿, Former Member ﴾Finance﴿, Space & Atomic Energy Commission and Honorary Advisor, ISRO.
Chandrayaan-1 was its historic confirmation of the presence of water on the surface of moon. The third one is that as Chairman of ISRO, Mr Madhavan Nair was instrumental in establishing village resource centres in a large number of India's villages. It is a tribute to him that he was able to improve the quality of life in ordinary villages of India by bringing them the benefits of space-based projects.
Mr S K Das Former Member (Finance), Space & Atomic Energy Commission and Honorary Advisor, ISRO
I
would like to talk about three particularly glorious moments of ISRO's history. One is the development of the PSLV Rocket. PSLV has now emerged as the
most successful rocket worldwide. Out of 59 launches, PSLV has been successful in 56, taking the success rate to 95%. That's an overwhelming number. The PSLV rocket is Mr Madhavan Nair's baby. He built it from scratch. It is gratifying to note that PSLV has carried not only Indian satellites, but also foreign satellites -not merely to the earth’s orbit, but to the faraway Moon and Mars as well. Another noteworthy event was the launch of Chandrayaan-1, India's stepping stone to planetary exploration. ISRO did this successfully with Mr Madhavan Nair at the helm. The remarkable thing about 54
JANUARY 2024
Mr Madhavan Nair Former Chairman, ISRO
I
SRO is a fantastic organization, and perhaps a unique one globally. It has established its credibility through innovative solutions to practical problems.
Dr. Vikram Sarabhai was a great visionary who envisioned that India should acquire high technology rocket science and its applications, so that the quality of life of the common man can be improved. This has
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been the driving spirit of the Indian space program, and
laboratories for research and development for various
I feel fortunate to have been a part of it.
applications. The agricultural revolution was headed by
I had the opportunity to work in the high-tech area and contribute something useful to the country. More than that, I am grateful for the opportunities that independent India and its institutions provided. I am just a specimen of that. I did my schooling in the early days of independent India, in a very remote village. My
Dr. Swaminathan, the atomic program by Dr. Homi Bhabha, the space program by Dr. Vikram Sarabhai, and the missile program by Dr. Abdul Kalam. Their efforts are
live
examples
of
how
Indian
homegrown
technologies and scientists can achieve great heights of glory and produce results of global standards.
college education was at a government institution in
The fact that recently we were able to land very
Trivandrum, and later, I had the opportunity to join the
precisely on the south pole of the moon in the first
Bhabha Atomic Research Center.
attempt itself and have our Rover going around the moon for a couple of weeks, collecting data, shows the
India’s Giant Steps
excellence of the Space Technology that we have
In my early days, the biggest mechanized device in
achieved. I am really proud to be an Indian; to be a
my village was the bullock cart. From that situation, to
homegrown Indian; and to have had an opportunity to
reach the moon and put our national flag on its surface
work in a domestic program without any foreign aid. I
is indeed a very fruitful journey. We can all be proud of
recognize the encouragement I got right from the
that. In the early days, the government invested in
beginning, in the days of Dr. Vikram Sarabhai onwards.
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Dr. Abdul Kalam was my guru in all aspects - in rocket science, in management, and in handling complex issues. We also had fine gentleman scientists like Prof. Sathish Dhawan, Prof. U R Rao, and others. Such an ecosystem helped me to increase my knowledge base.
Q&A
Of course, I had to keep my eyes and ears open and take up the challenges associated with the development of huge rocket systems. PSLV has emerged as one of the most reliable and cost-effective launch systems in the world today. I am really proud that we have achieved that. We did not have anything other than elementary textbooks on rockets in India at that time.
Can you share some of the key milestones and challenges you experienced during your tenure as Chairman of ISRO?
Madhavan Nair: The most challenging task was the completion of the development of the cryogenic engine. We had tied up with Russia for technology transfer of the ionic engine. Unfortunately, due to geopolitical
There was no foreign aid or foreign collaboration
reasons, it didn't materialize. We had to learn ourselves
this
and
the ABC of the cryogenic engine, about various uses,
technologists worked with their arms, blasting rocket
the complex operating cycle, and the precision
motors, and sometimes putting the satellites into the
fabrication engineering associated with that. We created
sea, rather than the orbit. We went through all the
the facilities for testing the cryogenic rocket engine as
trauma, but it has been a rich experience. From 1967
well. This experience came in handy in our development
onwards, for 45 years, I was associated with this
of the GSLV Mark 3, 2010 engine.
in
field.
Our
own
Indian
scientists
program at the Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station and later with the Chandrayaan moon mission.
But what has come to the public eye is the Chandrayaan mission and going to the moon for the first time, traveling all the way for 4 lakh kilometres
Improving the Quality of Life Having grown up in a village in an average family,
with high precision.
I knew the difficulties of a common man in the villages. That was one of the driving forces for making sure that my energy, time, and knowledge were spent in
What inspired the initiation of manned mission to moon and space based services under your leadership at ISRO? How much support did you get from the government?
improving the quality of life for the villagers in the country. To a great extent, I succeeded, and my
It was Dr. Vikram Sarabhai's vision that drove the
successors have also carried the flag forward. Today,
Indian space program. In 2000, when we reviewed the
the Indian space program is one of the topmost and
situation, we had more or less accomplished what he
leading programs in the world. We converted serious
had envisioned. During my tenure, the associated
failures and major drawbacks into opportunities for
applications like telemedicine, tele-education, Village
gaining knowledge and course-correcting for the future.
Resource Center, and disaster management had all been
The methodology and teamwork we have built up in
perfected. Naturally, the question was: What next?
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We were toying with the idea of going to nearby
He taught me the elementary lessons in rocketry. But
objects like Moon and Mars for our exploration, simply
more than the technical side, I learnt a lot on managerial
because we wanted to understand better the science
side. He made everyone contribute to the best of their
behind the origin of these planets and also see whether
abilities. He gave ambience, encouragement and
there are valuable materials that can be brought back
nourishment to the individuals. He was great in team
for human consumption. Access to space by rockets
building. The scientific community is fairly egoistic.
and robotic instruments serves our purpose to a great
Massaging the ego of the people is crucial for success.
extent. But at the same time, there are several other
He put me in frying pan situations many times. I had
purposes that can be served only by the presence of
faced a number of failures, but in those times, he would
humans behind the machine. India lags behind America,
hold my hand, and encourage me.
Russia, and China in this respect. In the first decade of 2000, we initiated a study program, and all ISRO centers contributed significantly to the various scientific objectives, technology, and
There is always a debate if we should spend so much money on exploring space, which is so vast. What are your comments on this?
understanding the challenges associated with that. I
We have just tried to explore the solar system.
was happy to take the manned mission project to the
There are millions of solar systems in the galaxy. There
government. At the time, Montek Singh Ahluwalia was
are several galaxies which make the whole universe. We
the Vice-Chairman of the Planning Commission. He gave
all should be looking for an alternate habitat, in case
a very positive recommendation and was about to
something happens to our planet. That is one of our
approve the project. But unfortunately, it got stalled
motives. We are also trying to find the resources in
because of the scam associated with spectrum sale and
space which can be used in earth. For example, Helium
the resultant confusion.
3 is a fantastic fuel for fusion reaction. There is plenty
I'm happy to say that the first thing what Prime Minister Modiji has done is to take out those blueprints, brush it and give it a clean signal for going on. That is how the Gaganyaan manned mission has originated. We are well on the way. Maybe within a year or so, we will have our astronaut flying in our capsule in GSLV Mark 3 vehicle. That will be the proudest moment for our nation.
of that on the lunar surface. Can we bring it back? If we want to colonise Mars, what are the challenges associated with that? There is only carbon dioxide. How can we create life forms there? All these are big challenges. Exploring space will throw more light into the fundamental knowledge about the universe, and about the origin of life itself- the how and why of things happening, even to the human body. A lot of knowledge will come out of space studies.
How did working under Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam shape your approach to rocket technology and space exploration?
What would you consider as your most memorable moment during your tenure at ISRO?
Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam was a very unique personality. He was a very simple person, down to earth in his approach and very positive in looking at various issues. BUSINESS MANDATE
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Every moment I spent in ISRO is alive in my
contribution. I had a very smooth and productive six
memory. PSLV presented the biggest challenge and
years of tenure. Normally, it is a tenure for two years.
opportunity.
I'm really happy that I could contribute something
For
me,
it
was
also
our
biggest
achievement. More than anything, carrying the legacy
globally as well.
left behind by great personalities was itself a great honour.
What role do you see for India in the future space explorations?
How did your colleagues and other officials contribute to your success?
I think our Prime Minister Modiji has overtaken all of us in this respect. In fact, we used to go with
Everyone in ISRO -right from the lowest paid to the
proposals to the government and we had to struggle
highest paid -contributed. There were also bureaucrats
hard to convince the Delhi bureaucracy as well as the
who deserve a special mention like Mr S.V Ranganath,
ministers. Now I understand when ISRO Chairman
Former Chief Secretary of Karnataka and Mr S K Das
Somnath went for presenting the progress of the
(Former Member (Finance) and Honorary Advisor, ISRO),
manned capsule recovery project, the Prime Minister
who worked more like scientists than bureaucrats.
listened to all those things and he blessed the mission.
Collaboration
Immediately, he said that ISRO's next task must be to
and
cooperation
with
all
these
personalities made my tenure fruitful.
have our own space station by 2035 and that we must have our man landing on the moon in Indian rocket.
How did you contribute to international space community, especially as the first non- American President of the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA)? What is the support that you got from scientists of other countries?
These are fantastic, visionary goals, a political leader can provide to the organization. We are really happy with such goals and ISRO will have a leadership position in the years to come.
It's a very unique position. There are scientists from Europe, America, Russia, China, Japan and other developing countries. ISRO's contribution to the societal development is very unique and I could sell that idea globally. Secondly, on the theme of what space can contribute to managing climate change, we conducted a number of seminars and conferences. That input has gone to global warming studies as well.
Can you shed some light on the significance of Chandrayaan 1 mission and its impact on Indian space program?
Travelling 4 lakh kilometres in an unchartered territory, and making sure it goes in the right direction and ends up at the right point, without any GPS was a big challenge.
For the first time, after a series of
computer simulations, we were able to validate that and
We also looked at futuristic projects like the space
achieve success. We not only took photographs. We
elevator and harnessing the solar power from space.
could map 95% of the area and capture the mineral
Here again, my experience of working in ISRO, trying to
content on the surface of the moon. We could also find
synthesise the efforts of multidisciplinary people
out the presence of water and helium 3.
helped me. They looked, not at the colour of my skin, while accepting my leadership but rather my technical 58
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How do you view the intersection of space technology and societal services such as disaster warning and tele education?
and he will make money out of that. So, unless, some
ISRO's main contribution is societal applications.
not be able to make much headway. They have to be
No other country has taken such an initiative.
new innovation and inventions come, the start-ups will adventurous in taking up the challenges of space.
Everywhere, the space products are sold on a commercial basis.
Here, it is a government funded
program. We plan and execute, so that in a severe cyclone or flood, we are able to give advance warning. The tele education and telemedicine which we demonstrated became handy during the COVID time.
What are the key factors that have enabled us to succeed as a global player in the space industry?
As far as the space technology is concerned, we are on par with the developed countries. One area that we are lagging behind is the manned space flight. We will soon be doing that. In most countries, technologies are
What advice would you offer to aspiring professionals in the field of rocket technology and space exploration?
developed for military program, and later that is
Space is very complex. The multidisciplinary
the civilian domain, under the government setup.
activities require a huge investment. A private
Thanks to the long-term vision of our leaders and
individual or private industry alone cannot manage the
scientists and the commitment and hard work of the
human resource and infrastructure requirements. Even
team members, we are able to do very well. As we were
if we take the example of SpaceX, which is one of the
denied space technology, we were forced to develop it
very successful stories, 90% of funding comes from
ourselves. That has challenged our youngsters to apply
NASA.
their knowledge, innovate and find solutions to very
The second aspect is that in space, inventions and innovations are key driving factors. Elon Musk has made a reusable rocket. That's a new concept. It is really good
converted for civilian applications. In India, ISRO is in
difficult engineering problems. What we have achieved is a result of sheer hard work, for over six decades and our focused efforts.
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