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
India@2047 envisions a future where India stands as a technologically advanced and developed nation by the year 2047, marking the centenary of its independence. This vision encompasses several key aspects:
•Robust economic growth and self-reliance
•Pioneering technological advancements and innovation
•Commitment to sustainable development and environmental stewardship
•A society that is inclusive and equitable
•Strong and strategic global partnerships
•Preservation of vibrant culture and heritage
The objective of this goal is to build a prosperous, modern, and proud India, rooted in its rich history, diverse culture, and dynamic democracy.
In line with this vision, MMA organized a discussion
in August 2024 on the book “India @ 100: Envisioning Tomorrow’s Economic Powerhouse” authored by Prof. Krishnamurthy Subramanian, Executive Director of the IMF and former Chief Economic Advisor of India. The thought-provoking insights shared by the author were both inspiring and stimulating, sparking meaningful discussions among the participants.
I am pleased to present an article as the cover story in this issue, featuring the thoughts shared by the author, for your reading pleasure.
Click to read.
In today’s rapidly evolving business landscape, stakeholders are constantly seeking the ideal environment to foster innovation, collaboration, and growth. Flexibility has become the cornerstone of success for businesses, enabling them to adapt quickly to changing market conditions. Flexible jobs and
With the support of our esteemed members and well‐wishers, we are committed to achieving our objectives and surpassing all expectations.
policies offer numerous unique benefits, including increased employee confidence and accelerated development of small towns.
In May, SAIL announced its "Work from Other than Workplace" policy, allowing employees to choose to work from locations other than their normal office or base location. This is indeed a remarkable initiative, especially from a public sector organization, where such flexibility is often unexpected.
Flexible workplaces are emerging as the optimal choice for a variety of reasons. They offer unparalleled adaptability, foster vibrant communities, and are costeffective, making them well-suited to the dynamic needs of modern businesses. It is time to consider markers of freedom that go beyond the political and economic, recognizing that freedom at work—fuelled by flexible work options—is just as crucial.
As the workplace continues to evolve rapidly, introducing new technologies, processes, and work models, it is imperative that organizations shed their industrial-era mind-sets. To thrive in the future, businesses must quickly and efficiently seize the new opportunities that flexibility presents.
To grasp the challenges of building a sustainable world, one needs to only look at the tragedy in Kerala. The landslide in Wayanad is among the worst that Kerala has ever witnessed. We often think that solving
the problem of ecological sustainability is a straightforward one, but the reality is far more complex. Unfortunately, our efforts often amount to little more than organizing conferences to discuss the need for a sustainable world, without effecting real change.
The landslide in Wayanad highlights a troubling reality: even in the wake of horrific events, people are often unwilling to alter their behaviour. Convincing the public that climate change and its consequences are real remains a significant challenge.
In this context, MMA is privileged to present the efforts of the Armed Forces at ground zero in what can be termed "Operation Wayanad."
It is something every Indian should know to fully appreciate the enormity of the tragedy and the subsequent efforts of various agencies, particularly the Army, in the rescue operations. We are privileged to have Lt. Gen. Karanbir Singh Brar, AVSM, General Officer Commanding, Dakshin Bharat Area, share the challenges faced by the Army during the Wayanad rescue operation in a lecture scheduled to be held on Thursday, 26th September 2024, at MMA.
Please mark your calendar or join us live through MMA’s social media portals.
The unveiling of the Unified Pension Scheme (UPS) appears poised to replace the National Pension Scheme (NPS), which has been in place since 2004. While the NPS was a market-linked initiative, it has struggled to deliver a respectable payout for retirees. The UPS has the potential to be a significant improvement, provided it does not turn into a costly burden on the economy. It’s crucial, however, that policy decisions are guided by sound economic principles in the interest of the
nation. The success of the UPS will depend on its ability to balance long-term sustainability with the promise of secure retirements for all.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has announced the launch of its Unified Lending Interface (ULI), a technology platform designed to enable frictionless credit access, particularly for those who struggle to borrow. Just as the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) revolutionized the payment ecosystem, ULI is set to transform the lending space in India.
If it functions as intended, ULI could position India to close the last-mile gaps in formal credit delivery, liberating people from the clutches of predatory moneylenders. Let us wish the ULI platform success and hope it paves the way for seamless credit services that benefit everyone.
The safety of women at work is not just a matter of justice—it's essential for building a more productive workforce and achieving sustainable growth. However, there is an urgent need to transform societal attitudes to ensure this safety.
The recent crime at a hospital has deeply shaken the public, yet sexual violence remains a pervasive concern for women worldwide. Women often find themselves on high alert while walking on the street, waiting for a bus, shopping in a marketplace, or simply going to work. This constant threat of sexual violence discourages women from pursuing work, particularly outside the home.
While some administrative measures, such as special or free public transport for women and stronger
To build resilience against the evolving storm of cyber threats, businesses must continuously adapt their defences, foster a culture of security, and leverage the latest tools and technologies.
laws against gender violence, have been implemented, these alone are insufficient if society continues to believe that a woman's place is in the home. Education, awareness, and a shift in societal mind-sets are crucial.
We must change attitudes to encourage women to work and, more importantly, to ensure their safety.
In today’s rapidly digitizing world, India is at the forefront of embracing digital technologies. While this brings numerous benefits, such as increased connectivity and access to information, it also presents a darker side: the rising problem of digital addiction, cybercrimes, and cyberattacks. The reality of cyberattacks is increasingly worrisome, impacting businesses of all sizes and individuals alike. These attacks are now more sophisticated, targeted, and disruptive, making preparedness an undeniable necessity. To build resilience against the evolving storm of cyber threats, businesses must continuously adapt their defences, foster a culture of security, and leverage the latest tools and technologies. Addressing these challenges requires a multi-faceted approach—one that involves education, regulation, and support systems to mitigate their negative impact on society.
In this context, MMA organized a seminar on "Securing the Future of Digital Payments: Innovate, Adapt, and Comply!" in association with the Digital
Security Association of India (DiSAI) for the benefit of our members. I am delighted to present in this issue an article on the insights shared by experts, which I believe you will find valuable.
Click to read the article.
Mr. Chinnikrishnan ignited the "Sachet Revolution," with a vision that the joys of the affluent should be accessible to the common man. The CavinKare-MMA Chinnikrishnan Innovation Awards are a fitting tribute to his legacy, celebrating innovation in India.
This year, the awards continued to embrace a fully digital approach, engaging with innovators across the country. Through dynamic campaigns, we reached a diverse spectrum of innovators, garnering an impressive 400,000 impressions. We are particularly delighted by the participation of numerous start-ups in the realm of green technology, showcasing innovations that are both timely and relevant.
After detailed video presentations and deliberations, the Jury selected three exceptional innovations to receive this year’s awards. The grand
award ceremony will be held on Saturday, September 14th, 2024, at the IIT Madras Research Park Auditorium.
This event underscores the critical importance of emphasizing innovation to democratize products and services. You are cordially invited to join us in celebrating this spit of innovation.
I am also delighted to present more intriguing articles in this issue for your reading pleasure and inspiration.
We urge you to constantly send in your feedback— positive ones as well as criticism—both are equally important in enabling us to get better at what we do.
As always, we would be happy to hear your views, comments and suggestions.
Happy reading!
Prof. Krishnamurthy Subramanian
Let me give you a little bit of background to set the context. Two thoughts have led to the crystallisation of my study. Firstly, I have believed that for positive outcomes to manifest, positive thinking is necessary, but for negative outcomes to manifest, negative thinking is sufficient. Therefore, there is a need for credible positive thinking about the Indian economy—and India@100 is an effort at that direction.
I have not built a castle of dreams. I've laid it on a foundation of what I think is sound economic logic and data. As a researcher, I have been trained in the Sherlock Holmes philosophy of theorising only after you have the data. That is the philosophy I've taken to the book as well. The idea for the book came about when I was in the last few months of my stint with the government.
The celebrations of India @ 75 were happening. I
MMA in collaboration with ISB organised a discussion on the book, ‘India@100: Envisioning Tomorrow’s Economic Powerhouse,’ authored by Prof. Krishnamurthy Subramanian, Executive Director, International Monetary Fund ﴾IMF﴿; Professor, Indian School of Business ﴾ISB﴿; and Former Chief Economic Advisor to Govt of India. Mr Gopal Srinivasan, Chairman & Managing Director, TVS Capital Funds ﴾P﴿ Ltd., led the conversation with the author and celebrated economist.
have had the privilege of writing three economic surveys, each of which focussed on a particular theme. The first one, in 2018-19, focussed on the economic strategy for India to become a $5 trillion economy; the second one, 2019-20, on the importance of ethical wealth creation for the Indian economy; and the third on the post-covid economy. My thoughts naturally gravitated towards what India would be when it turns 100, in its centennial year.
...the GDP now will double every eight years. There are three doublings from now to 2047: 3.25 to 6.5 to 13 to 26. That explains the $26 Tn projection.
The bottom line is, I'm estimating India to be a $55 trillion economy, provided if it can grow at 8% in real terms from now on till 2047. Many of you may find this goal to be audacious, but there is economic logic underlying the power of compounding. Very often we do not understand the power of compounding
To give you one example, let's take Japan from 1970 to 1995 over a 25-year period. Japan's GDP multiplied 25 times from $215 billion to $5.1 trillion. During this
In the economic history of India, 2016 will be remembered as a pivotal year because it marked the introduction of the inflation targeting regime.
period, the GDP per capita increased from 2100 to 44,000. Their inflation fell from 8% to 1% when many of the advanced global economies went through a period of hyperinflation following the oil shock. Its currency appreciated from 350 yens to 85 yens to the dollar. In other words, there was four times appreciation of the currency.
I'm not assuming, but modelling and thereby predicting that in the next 25 years, the rate of depreciation of the rupee is likely to be significantly lower than what it has been. Historically, the rate of depreciation of the rupee has been about 3 to 3.5 percent per annum, but this has been during a period when India's inflation has been about 7.5 percent on average. Based on one of the fundamental tenets in international economics, if the real value of the currency remains the same in purchasing power parity terms and there is a decrease in inflation, then there will be a decrease in the rate of depreciation of the rupee. Because, when inflation is higher, the real value of
currency reduces faster. To offset that and to keep the real value same, currency has to depreciate more. So with 7% plus inflation, the depreciation has been about 3 to 3.5 percent.
In the economic history of India, 2016 will be remembered as a pivotal year because it marked the introduction of the inflation targeting regime. This policy requires the Central Bank—the Reserve Bank of India—to maintain an inflation target of 4%, with a margin of plus or minus 2%.
From 2016 to March 2024, the average inflation rate has been precisely 5%, despite challenges such as COVID-19, the Ukraine war, and the fact that advanced economies during this period have experienced inflation rates 2.5 to 4 times their historical averages. In contrast, India, whose historical inflation rate exceeded 7%, has managed to achieve an average inflation rate of 5%. Therefore, going forward, 5% is a very reasonable expectation for inflation. So if depreciation of the rupee was about 3 to 3.5 percent with inflation at 7% plus, with the inflation declining to 5%, the rate of depreciation should go down by at least 2%; therefore, 1% is a very reasonable rate of depreciation of the currency. Growth at 8% in real terms is one of the most important elements of this theory. At 8% growth in real terms with 5% inflation, in nominal terms, the growth will be 13% (eight plus five).
To estimate the rate of growth in dollars, we have to subtract the rate of depreciation because it reduces the value in dollar terms, compared to rupees. So subtract 1% rate of depreciation from 13% and we have 12% nominal growth. Going by the Rule of 72 to find out the period for doubling of investment (72 divided by rate of interest), in six years, our GDP will double (72
From 2016 to March 2024, the average inflation rate has been precisely 5% despite challenges...
divided by 12% growth).
Over the 24 year period from 2023 to 2047, there will be four doublings. In 2023, India's GDP was 3.28 trillion precisely. Let us keep it at 3.25 so that we can work with round numbers. The first doubling will be from 3.25 to 6.5; second from 6.5 to 13; third from 13 to 26; and fourth from 26 to 52. We have done mental calculations here. The precise number is 55. The most important element in this is 8% growth.
Let me use the same exercise to illustrate why the global consulting firm Ernst & Young has predicted our economy to be $26 Tn at 2047. They have assumed 7% growth in real terms. Add 5% inflation. Seven plus five is 12% in nominal rupee terms. Instead of taking 1% depreciation, which should be the result of lower inflation, let's take the rate of depreciation to be what it has been historically, which is 3%. So, 12 minus three is 9% in nominal dollars. Using the rule of 72, the GDP now will double every eight years (72/9). There are three doublings from now to 2047: 3.25 to 6.5 to 13 to 26. That explains the $26 Tn projection.
Let me give you an example from cricket. When Sachin Tendulkar played his first series in Pakistan in 1989 against the pace of Waqar Younis, Imran Khan and Wasim Akram, he started with a broken nose. That he fought back is legendary. Three years later, in 1992, he goes to Perth, after he's already scored his first century
at Edgbaston and hits a wonderful 100. Everybody wows about him. Sunil Gavaskar, in 1993, if I remember right, makes a statement and says, “By the time Sachin finishes his career, if he does not score 40 international hundreds and at least 12,000 international runs, I will personally go and strangle him. I will be old. My hands will not have as much strength, but I will still try.”
Now, this was a paternalistic statement from Gavaskar that marked the potential that Sachin had, which was assessed based on his past performance for the last three years. There is an important learning here for the Indian economy. Having seen the performance of the Indian economy over the past 30 years, especially
the last 10 years, one can assess that there is potential for 8% growth. Sachin achieved those landmarks not just because Sunil Gavaskar assessed him. Sachin had to work really hard. He had to overcome setbacks like the tennis elbow and creatively come up with solutions.
There is an even more important learning in that as well. The Indian economy will have to work hard. State governments and central governments will have to work hard to implement good policies to deliver the 8% growth. Black swan events will inevitably come during a 25 year period and you must come up with creative solutions, like we did during Covid. If we can do that, we can be the Sachin Tendulkar of the global economy.
intellectual rigour from the way you have analysed the data. I now understand why your thesis didn't end up with just one award for the best thesis in America from the American Finance Association (AFA) but also won the Kauffman Award for thesis across 12 different sectors. When you were CEA, you talked about thalinomics. In very simple thalinomics language, what are the four or five building blocks beyond the rupee appreciation or depreciation rate that you had in mind?
Krishnamurthy Subramanian: I will share a little bit of the background that I come from, and which is an aspect that oftentimes drives my economic thinking as well. My father lost his father when he was seven years old. He finished SSLC. He didn't have the privilege to go to university, but he made sure that my brother and I had the opportunity to get education. I have seen the common person's life. I spent my entire childhood growing up in Type 2 railway quarters. When I was a CA, I got a Type 7 railway quarters and I really missed
study this, but at the same time, each one of us thinks that we understand economics fully. The nuance in that is something which is many times missed. Therefore, it is important to be able to explain economics to the common person with all its nuances. I've tried to use examples that are common to us, even to those from non-economic backgrounds. Thalinomics idea was along the same lines, because nothing is more common than a plate of thali or plate of food and we encounter it at least three times in a day. I used that to have a conversation on inflation. In a similar way, let me explain the four pillars.
In a democracy, it is important to get the necessary support for good economic policies and structural reforms to happen. It is really critical that the benefits of growth spread far and wide. Therefore, one of the pillars, is social and economic inclusion driven by jobs.
Tax policy should be about efficiency, not about trying to do socialism. Tax is the most critical part of ease of doing business.
If my father had not got a job in the Indian railways, I wouldn't have even one hundredth of what I have today. I was socially excluded, but with the power of education and a job, things changed. We have a very young demography. The young population need to live the Indian dream too. That is where the social and economic inclusion is important.
The second pillar, from a macroeconomic perspective, is the focus on growth and growth alone. Good policy making requires absolute clarity of thought. Having been part of government, I cannot emphasise enough what the first Nobel Laureate in Economics, Tinbergen said, and which was coined as a Tinbergen rule: as many instruments, so many policy goals.
When we have conversations on things like tax policy, we try and hobble that with multiple objectives. Tax policy should be about efficiency, not about trying to do socialism. Tax is the most critical part of ease of doing business. Our intellectuals take one of those narratives that is prevailing in the West and just transplant it here, without thinking whether that is equally applicable for India or not. For example, higher inequality translates into lower socio-economic indicators. But that is not the case with India and that is why we must focus on growth and growth alone at the macroeconomic level.
The third pillar is wealth creation. In my opinion, if there is one mindset change that is required in India,
it is about the way we think about wealth creators. Given our socialist past, we think about wealth creators only as a necessary evil. We do not think about them as enormous contributors to society.
Let me draw again, a personal example. When we were young and living in Bilaspur, we were a lower middle class family. We used to have a house help who used to come and help my mother in doing the dishes. This house help would also work with nine other families. A lower middle class family like ours, which was not creating much wealth, was creating one-tenth of a job. In contrast, the local jeweller in Bilaspur was a wealth creator. He used to employ about 100 employees between his business and home. While we were paying a meagre amount to the house help, he was paying at least three times of what we gave as salary. He was creating jobs both in terms of quantity and quality.
I do not hold a candle for any industrialist in this country, because not one rupee have I earned by doing consulting for any one of them. Therefore, I can speak with absolute conviction that what I say is in the interest of the country and our economy. No industrialist puts his money in a mattress and sleeps with that. He puts it in the companies and those companies provide jobs.
Just 5% of us might be working in government jobs. The rest work in private sector jobs. The jobs come from wealth creators, who create companies. We allow many demagogues to pull wool over our eyes. They create an artificial tension between what is good for the citizen and wealth creation. The reality is that there is no tension—natural or artificial. You need wealth creation for employment to happen, and thereby enabling social and economic inclusion. This is a mindset change that is absolutely required.
On credit creation, mindset change is required. In 2020, our private credit to GDP ratio was 58% while the global average was 130 to 140%.
And finally, the fourth pillar, is a virtuous cycle driven by investment. Over the last 100 years, every country that has grown at 5% plus growth rate in real terms, not just for one or two years, but over an entire decade, has done that by investing more. Therefore investment is absolutely critical. These are the four pillars for India to have not only high growth, but growth that is equitable and the benefits of which spread far and wide and create employment
Gopal Srinivasan: In India, democracy is noisy. We cannot do stroke-of-the-pen changes. The RBI is unfavourable to credit expansion. Can we really manage 8% growth with all this noise?
Krishnamurthy Subramanian: Stretch goals are important. Research in psychology also shows that a 10 or 20% stretch is something that goads you to work harder. Some of the challenges are absolutely well taken. We are a democracy. I actually want to take this opportunity to therefore highlight that we are a federal structure in which both states and centre have equal roles to play. I am not part of the government now and so I'm not speaking for or against the government.
When it comes to governance, power and responsibility are two sides of the same coin. For instance, if states say, ‘You are getting into my into my territory,’ let's ask them the question: ‘Are you fulfilling your responsibility?’ Agriculture is a state subject. Have
you reformed the farm laws that seem to continue since 1960s and benefit only a few? For all the rhetoric about farmers, has it benefited the small farmer? Have you done the changes? What about your responsibility? We need to ask these questions. Immediately after the central budget, we ask a lot of questions to the union government. Why are we not asking similar questions to the state governments after they present their budgets?
Manufacturing requires factor inputs, which is land, labour, capital, logistics, power and economies of scale. How many of these are state subjects? Land, labour and power are all in the domain of the states. If smart meters are not employed and there is power pilferage, what will happen? Economies of scale don’t happen when firms don't grow. The incentives are very perverse. When are our media friends going to ask questions to the state governments and start writing editorials asking the states to do reforms? This is very important for a democracy like ours.
On credit creation, mindset change is required. In 2020, our private credit to GDP ratio was 58% while the global average was 130 to 140%. This average of 58% prevailed for the globe in 1960. It means we are six decades behind. It is because, almost 94% of credit in the Indian economy is collateral-based. This is in a country where 60% of the economic value-add comes from services which do not have too much assets. What we need is cash-flow based lending. We now have the public digital infrastructure to enable this.
Gopal Srinivasan: We call ourselves democracy. But we do not have district level or municipal level or panchayat level democracy. The administrative officers appointed by the state government are ruling all the way. Should not changes be happening here?
Krishnamurthy Subramanian: This is a phenomenal question. Yesterday, I was coming from Kanchipuram and we were 26 kilometers away. Google Maps was showing me that it would take me one hour to travel. I was quickly comparing that with travel in the United States. I would cover 15 miles in 20 minutes. The question that automatically came to my mind was, “How do we get state governments to become responsible?” Some parts of the roads are absolutely shambolic.
The thought that came to my mind was, ‘Why don't we start tracking, using Google data?’ It is possible now to see the average speed of all the major cities and feed that to state governments. Social media gives us that democratisation. Local roads are afterall developed by state governments. If we save travel time, we can improve the quality of life and spend extra time with our families. We must also think innovatively if we can stagger the work timings.
Gopal Srinivasan: We generally compare ourselves with China. But aren’t we getting into a middle income trap like Brazil, which is also noisy democracy like ours?
Krishnamurthy Subramanian: We don't need to restrict our comparisons to China. Many of the East Asian economies have been able to grow their GDP per capita significantly without getting stuck in the middle income trap. There are important lessons there. The political establishment must realise the importance of reforms. Citizens also must highlight the importance of reforms at the state level.
In India, we have the PLI scheme. But incentives should not be ad infinitum. We support children. But supporting them when they are 40 does not make sense. In Latin American countries, the industries that benefitted from policies wanted to protect their turf
We don't need to restrict our comparisons to China. Many of
the East Asian economies have been able to grow their GDP per capita significantly without getting stuck in the middle income trap.
and did not allow subsequent reforms to happen. Three factors are sufficient for a country to avoid the middle income trap: manufacturing sector growth; increase in secondary sector productivity; and rule of law. India needs to be definitely aware of that. Judicial reforms are also very important for our country.
Gopal Srinivasan: During peak Covid time, when the Western world was spending a big percentage of the GDP as relief package, you were stingy and economists were shouting from rooftops that it would take India deep into trouble. But you were very confident of handling it and you proved later to be correct. There was criticism and then there was praise. Where did that optimism come to you in the midst of such an overwhelming catastrophe?
Krishnamurthy Subramanian: When I took over as Chief Economic Adviser in December 2018, growth was declining. There were many narratives explaining the decline, but I was convinced that it was primarily due to crony lending and its lingering effects. I firmly believed that there was nothing structurally wrong with the Indian economy because we had implemented policies like the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act (RERA), and various other reforms. We had also achieved significant progress in financial inclusion, with
over 500 million people brought into the system. Additionally, cleanliness initiatives were underway, and our health outcomes were improving.
As soon as the lockdown began, we assembled a phenomenal team of young Assistant Directors, Deputy Directors, and Indian Economic Service officers in the Ministry of Finance. I took great care in creating this team, which we called Team CEA. I tasked them with tracking about 60 high-frequency indicators on a weekly basis, starting from the very beginning of the lockdown. Every Monday morning, we would review the level of each indicator from the previous week, compare it to the current week, and assess the change. We shared this data with the Honourable Prime Minister, the Honourable Finance Minister, and several senior cabinet ministers. This data, along with my assessment of the economy, proved to be invaluable.
During the lockdown, many of these indicators, such as e-way bills and power consumption, were trending downward. However, they began trending upward as soon as the lockdown was lifted. I could see the 'V' shape in the data. The 24% decline in GDP was solely due to the restraint on economic activity caused by the lockdown. As restrictions were lifted, the GDP rebounded, leading to the V-shaped recovery.
Gopal Srinivasan: My last question. Have you received a call from the Prime Minister's Office and what's next for you?
Krishnamurthy Subramanian: I'm tempted to say, ‘with friends like you, who needs enemies?’ (laughs). But honestly, given my background, what gives me the greatest satisfaction—and something I am deeply passionate about—is serving the nation.
Dr R Balasubramaniam: I have had the privilege of watching our Prime Minister from close quarters, having done a lot of interviews with him and a lot of one-to-one discussions. I think he's a man yet to be fully understood by the nation. I wrote the book because it's a story to be told to the whole world. The story is about India's contribution to leadership, and we can't lose sight of that. What our nation has achieved and what we hardly speak about is the enormous civilisational wisdom that our country is full of.
We also live in a time when we either romanticise everything about India and discard it, or we criticise everything India and Indian and we discard it. We say we had an airplane 3000 years ago. We did plastic surgery 5000 years ago. Today's world demands evidence. I have tried to find the big path and the point of equilibrium.
I am not saying the western models of leadership
MMA along with Sastra University organised a discussion on the book, “Power Within: The Leadership Legacy of Narendra Modi” authored by Dr R Balasubramaniam, Author & Member ‐ HR, Capacity Building Commission, GoI; Founder ‐ SVYM & GRAAM, Mysuru. Apart from the author, the panellists included Dr S Vaidhyasubramaniam, Vice‐Chancellor, SASTRA Deemed University & TATA Sons Chair Professor of Management; Dr V Kamakoti, Director, IIT Madras; Anand Raghavan, Chartered Accountant & Trustee, Palkhivala Foundation; and Rajiv C Lochan, Managing Director, Sundaram Finance Limited.
are not good enough. Neither do I say that India's leadership is the only solution for the world. All I try to present is the wisdom of India and analyse it using a case study of Prime Minister Modi.
Forty years ago, I went into the forests of India, and I was deeply pained by the fact that the government had no idea of what governance was. The government didn't understand citizens and its tribal populations. I come from an area where there are four reservoirs and four dams. One of the early prime ministers called them the temples of modern India. I found them as the cause of the doom of modern India. A national park was declared, and all the tribals living there were thrown out mercilessly. I felt the state, in its wisdom, created poverty in the first place and then they decided to fight poverty among the tribals. As a 22-year-old, I was angry. But for my conviction and the principles of Vivekananda and Mahatma Gandhi, I would have taken to arms. I thought something was wrong. “Why can't people sitting
in Delhi understand this?” I mused. Policy making must start with compassion, understanding citizens and listening to the voices of masses. In that frustration, I wrote several books. I found extraordinary leadership in tribal chieftains. I was asking myself, “If these people can exhibit such leadership, why are people in Bangalore and Delhi not learning from them?”
We live in a nation where a poor person is by default considered to be ignorant. We think only a Harvard MBA can teach us how to explain all this. That led me to go to Harvard itself and understand what they know more than us. I spent some time there after my masters and realised that I did not get the answers to the questions I had, but it actually helped me ask the questions in a better way. I started asking questions. Why did I even come here? What did I learn here? Or is there something missing back home that I have not understood properly?
As my young son was watching a Tom & Jerry cartoon, it suddenly occurred to me, ‘Why are we giving him a Western narrative of what a cat is and what a mouse is? We have our own Jataka and Panchatantra tales. Beyond a few pages of comics, we don't go deeper. I was blessed and fortunate to have two gurus in my life. My diksha guru was Swami Achalanandaji. The privilege of knowing him for just five years made me understand scriptures from a particular angle. He worked from Viveka Chudamani to Atma Bodha. My other guru was Swami Sureshananda of the Ramakrishna Ashram. He taught me how to run an organisation.
In the course of a conversation, I started sharing my frustrations of discovering so much in Indian literature and scriptural wisdom, but not being able to package it together. In a moment of wisdom and in his
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6.00 pm to 7.15 pm | 12-Sep-24
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CHINNIKRISHNAN
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STRAIGHT LINES TO GREAT HORIZONS: ENDLESS POSSIBILITIES
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own way of looking at it, Swami Sureshananda said, “I know somebody who, as a young man came to the Ramakrishna Ashram to become a monk, and we turned him away. He is now the Chief Minister of Gujarat. Why don't you use the model that you're evolving to filter him and see whether you can fix your model.”
So, it started off trying to find a case study for the model I was describing. I thought Mr Modi was sitting somewhere in Gujarat. ‘I don't know him. I can’t reach him. How can I even study him?’ I thought. I wrote another book called ‘Leadership Lessons for Daily Living,’ where I wrote about ordinary people who were exhibiting extraordinary leadership. It could be a street vendor in Mysore or an auto driver I met in Myladuthurai. In all my journeys across the country and the world, I met different kinds of people. I wrote about them using the Indic references, but I didn't come out with anything solid in that book.
But then fate has got its own way of conspiring, and three years ago, the honourable Prime Minister Modi invited me to join the Capacity Building Commission that he was setting up. It is something very close to his heart and which he says will revolutionise India and its preparedness to meet future challenges. Our job is to make civil servants stop thinking like karma chari and acting like karma yogi, and something which was very deep in his vision. He said, “How do we go beyond a rules-based approach and get the people to understand they have a role to play in serving this country? How do we make the bureaucrats future-ready?” These things were music to my ears. I got a chance to be part of this mission and more importantly, I had a chance to see him in action.
I have so much of research that we put it all
together. I wondered if Mr Modi would allow me to go deep into his life? He gave me only three directions. He said, ‘The book is not about me. It is about India's leadership. The world should understand that our leadership models are far more huge and stronger and far deep-rooted than anything else. You can use me as a case study, but don't forget the fact that you're talking about India.’ Second, he said, “After reading this book, 1000 leaders for this country should emerge. Then your book is a success. Not by how many people read it or how many books are sold, but how many leaders this nation gets.” And the third, he said, “It should be about offering a way forward for all of us.” He doesn't have to pretend to be humble with people like me who work with him. In one conversation during the Capacity Building Commission meeting, he even said, “You're building capacities of civil servants. Your job also includes telling me what I should improve upon.” That is the kind of approach he has got. He is a lifelong learner.
I wanted to package him. We had many one-on-one conversations. There are many incidents about him which are not known to the outside world. Some are in the public domain. For example, he had come to Chennai, may be a year or two ago. I didn't put it in my book. He had come to Anna University for a convocation. He recollected an incident and told me, when I asked him, “Where do you get your energy from?” All of us in Delhi know how long he works. If he's on a flight to the US, he works on the plane. He lands back and half an hour later, he is in a meeting. People who accompany him have jet lag, but he doesn’t. The magic of his work is something that all of us aspire to imitate, but we can't do it.
Mr Modi said, “I went to Chennai for the convocation and I was told this is the university where the highest number of students graduate. I saw the hall. It was packed, but it didn't look like a hall where the highest number of students graduated. After some time, I asked the Vice Chancellor, “Is this all the students who are graduating today or are there more students?” The VC told me, “There are other halls which have television sets. More students are watching from there.” The Prime Minister never disrupts anything, whether it's a presentation you make to him or a conversation you have with him. He is never disrespectful or disruptive. He listens to you very deeply and he did the same thing at the end of the session with the Vice Chancellor.
Mr Modi continued, “I asked the Vice-Chancellor if I can go and meet the other students. I asked them all to stay back. I went and talked to those students. People think that I am trying to show off or trying to impress somebody. I know that the state will never elect me. It's okay. I went there because I get my energy from those people. They give me energy when they share their problems and aspirations with me.”
When he was a pracharak, he used to be roaming around the country and that was a different connectedness. But by default, your position disconnects you from a lot of those realities. Mr Modi, though, is very well connected. Even today, he can pick up the phone and call any of his old pracharak friends in some village and ask, “How is it happening there?”
In my research, I discovered some fascinating things about him through his principal secretary, Dr P K Mishra, an extraordinary bureaucrat of this country who's been with him for close to 25 years. He was earlier the Chief Minister's principal secretary. He
narrated two incidents which I think I must share. I quoted only one of them in the book. When the Swaminarayan temple had a bomb attack, even before the DGP of the state or the chief secretary of the state or the principal secretary knew, the Chief Minister Mr Modi got to know about it. He called the three of them and said, “I have heard there is a bomb attack in Akshardham temple. Rush people right now.” Within three minutes of the attack, he knew it. That is his connectedness. Even today across the country, he has got people who can relate to him on a one-to-one basis.
The second incident. He called the principal Secretary in Gujarat one day when he was the CM and told him, “I am very happy that one civil servant in the Women and Child Department works on Saturdays and Sundays. The problem is that he is not working in the area where he is posted. He's working elsewhere.” It was a sort of joke that the civil servant was using government jeep for his personal tourism. The principal secretary verified it and found the CM’s comment to be true. Incidents like these speak about his extraordinary leadership and communication.
India has got so much to offer. I have only used Prime Minister Modi as a case study in my book. But it completes what the world needs. We are living in a world where Black Swan events are the norm and not exceptions anymore. Public leadership around the world has failed.
Many times, they are unable to manage the problem that they have created. We need leaders who are extraordinary. I have argued how the Indic model is the solution for the whole world. That's what India tried to convey in the G20 declaration touching the 4Ps: Planet, People, Peace and Prosperity. We focus on vasudhaiva kutumbakam—the world is one family.
Dr S Vaidhyasubramaniam
Vice‐Chancellor, SASTRA Deemed University & TATA Sons Chair Professor of Management
To set the context for panel discussions, let me touch upon two aspects. One is a personal experience of Swami Vivekananda himself. The second is research that was done in the early 2000. Swami Vivekananda went to the US after he undertook a Bharat yatra. Those were the times when we had an impoverished India. Certain parts had famine and certain parts had floods. The bottom line was that the country was ravaged by both.
It was in that situation that Vivekananda went in 1893 to Chicago to address the World Parliament of Religions, which was organised to establish a different
He is a tough task master. Once you commit to something, he sees to it that you deliver. That is a very important leadership trait.
~ Dr Kamakoti
theocratic supremacy, but in that platform, it required the saintly statesmanship of a towering personality like Swami Vivekananda to address the audience. He told the audience, ‘I come from a country that has the potential to lead the world.’
In the early 2000, they did research to understand the civilisational propensities of nations. An important finding was how the civilisational propensity of Bharat
To me, leadership is less about leadership, more about followership. And from that standpoint, leaders need to have followers, otherwise they can't be leaders.
~ Rajiv Lochan
was so dominant, so much so that the world's biggest temple was in Cambodia, that in a remote village in Vietnam people still speak Sanskrit and there was a Central University in Indonesia that was called the Sandipani University. The civilisational symbols of India were present beyond the current boundaries of India, not because India exercised its military powers. It had tremendous soft civilisational assets with which it could dominate different geographies of the world. ‘Power Within’ connects various leadership models that primarily find its source in many of these civilisational assets.
The author narrates about the 1979 tragedy in Morbi district in Gujarat. At that time, Modi was as an ordinary karyakarta of RSS. He worked with team members to handle decayed dead bodies. There are two things that are important in leadership: level of concern and level of control. If your level of concern is within your level of control, then you have to act. But what the modern generation does is just take a photo, put it on Twitter and say, ‘Chennai Corporation, the road is bad.’ You require a person who acts and gives a solution. The various levels of training that he had at different points of life have made him a leader who can find solutions, not only to our country but to the whole word. We saw how India helped the whole world in handling covid.
My first question to the panellists is: What leadership attribute that the author has cited about Prime Minster Modi that resonates with you personally or professionally?
Dr V Kamakoti: I have had personal experiences in observing our honourable and beloved Prime Minister. The first thing that inspires me is his mann ki baat (Prime Minister’s Radio program). After the first 50 episodes, we did a word cloud. The central word that came was ‘people’ followed by ‘country.’ That is what reflected in our G20 theme. In the radio talk, the PM mentions about a person who makes a product somewhere in the north east. That person now exports his product. That is the impact of mann ki baat.
The second thing that I like about him is igniting hope in the people. One of our IIT alumnus, Ganapathi was involved in developing the CoWin app. When we did the vaccination, we needed to have certificates. The whole world was watching us. After developing the app, Ganapathi went to the PM and suggested the name of ‘Covin’ for the app. The Prime Minister immediately responded, “Hum jeet gaye (We have won). Why don’t we name it Co-Win?” That's a very small thing but a great inspiration. We have done 250 crores of vaccinations today. The Western vaccines would not have worked here. We made our own vaccines and exported to other countries free of cost. This is where we are proud to be Bharat.
During Covid, we felt a heavy dependence on the Western world, especially for telecom. That is when our PM came up with one word, atmanirbharta. Today we have l1 telecom suppliers. We have the national telecom security directive. We have BSNL going for 5G. Several things happened just because of that one word. As a technologist, I am very grateful. The next one is the intersection of leadership and spiritual growth.
I also had the opportunity to work with the PM for Kashi Tamil Sangamam (KTS) 1.0 and 2.0. The PM always feels that the language should not become a barrier to communication. During KTS 2.0, just 24 hours before the inauguration, I got a call from the PMO that the PM would like to have his Hindi speech translated online with this head set and it should be done through ‘bhashini’ software. I coordinated and thank God, it worked. When the function finished, he came and hugged me. That's the inspiration I got. He is a tough task master. Once you commit to something, he sees to it that you deliver. That is a very important leadership trait.
Rajiv C Lochan: I have not had the chance to rub shoulders with Prime Minister Modi, like Professor Kamakoti or others. I had the chance to meet him only once, when he was the Chief Minister of Gujarat and I was working with the Bank of Baroda. We put together a strategy for the bank in Gujarat and met the CM with the Chairman and General Manager of the bank. We were expecting a battalion to come for the meeting. But we were surprised that he came alone and spent 45 minutes with us. Frankly, he knew more about what the bank was doing in the state of Gujarat than any other. It was really stunning. I certainly was blown away back then at the gravitas of the man.
To me, leadership is less about leadership, more about followership. And from that standpoint, leaders need to have followers, otherwise they can't be leaders. How do you inspire others? There are two sort of foundational aspects. One, you need to have a very deep sense of purpose that drives you. Two, you need to have a very deep sense of awareness—of yourself, the people around you and also the context in which you are operating
There are multiple instances and ways in which the
The concept of leadership as enshrined in this book is not about an individual trait. It's about an institutional mechanism of passing on leadership to the next generation.
~ Anand Raghavan
Prime Minister has demonstrated all of these in an integrated way. As leaders, we have to make a small number of big decisions. That's the mandate. We don't have to make large number of small decisions. You've to be convinced internally and not so much look for validation from the external. There will always be critics, skeptics and contrary views. Having an internal locus of control is quite important to be a leader with conviction.
The author has talked about viveka, vairagya, tyaga and seva (wisdom, determination, sacrifice and service) as leadership qualities. Perhaps I would add Anushasan (discipline) and vinamrata (humility). The Prime Minister does a fantastic job of bringing all these aspects together, regardless of who he interacts with-whether it's a senior bureaucrat or Elon Musk or a farmer in Madhya Pradesh. He is able to connect and relate quite remarkably. He has a deep sense of purpose and a strong sense of awareness. When these two are in place, you have the opportunity to build on that. You bring courage of conviction; care and commitment; and energy and optimism. His physical vitality at his age is remarkable. He works 17 to 18 hours non-stop, goes across multiple time zones and he is able to do this with humility.
Superpower doesn't come just by control but compassion.
~
Kamakoti
Anand Raghavan: The concept of leadership as enshrined in this book is not about an individual trait. It's about an institutional mechanism of passing on leadership to the next generation. The author says, ‘Leadership is not about power or authority. It is about understanding oneself and others around us, coming to terms with our own inner potential and what we are capable of and exploring how we can expand our capacities by mobilising others.'
Prof Kamakoti, what is your view on how Prime Minister Modi has globalised Indian education? As you have been in the thick of action, can you share some inputs on that?
Dr Kamakoti: It requires an elaborate answer but I'll finish off very briefly. Mr Dharmendra Pradhan, the Union Education Minister, the Secretary for Higher Education and I met and we discussed about setting up of an international campus of IIT and we looked at three aspects which the Prime Minister had driven very clearly. One, we need to go to a place where they need us. Two, the school education in that place should be good, because that's the input we are going to get. Three, the government there should be willing. We decided on Tanzania because Africa and India share the same pains of having been exploited by some Western countries at some point of time. We also see that they need us.
From the date when the External Affairs Minister went and signed the MOU there, followed by cabinet, parliament and other meetings, it took us just six months to start the institution. This is thanks to the
momentum which the national education policy, especially the vishwa guru concept, has driven. When the Prime Minister asked, “When are the classes starting?” they replied, “Already started.” It was a very happy birthday. On 24 October 2023, which happened to be Vijayadashmi and also the United Nations Day, we commenced the classes.
When the overseas government asked us about the commercial terms, we said, “We are Bharat. We are coming to share our knowledge. Whatever money you generate, we don't want even one rupee from that. Saraswati is mine. Lakshmi is yours.” Within the first two months, they gave us 100 plus acres of land to IIT Madras to establish the campus. The second batch is now starting. Superpower doesn't come just by control but compassion. We exported vaccine free of cost to developing countries. We are now spreading education. I'm sure this is where India should be loved as a super power and not feared as a superpower.
Leadership is about creating followers. Are there enough followers today who believe that good things will definitely happen in India?
Rajiv C Lochan: I think this process is irreversible. The government has put a number of reforms in place which cannot be reversed. Enough momentum has been built across these reforms. The single largest first time voters took part in 2014 elections and there was a decisive mandate after 30 years. We had a government that no longer had to suffer with coalition dynamics. That was the biggest signal from the citizens of the country. What followed from there was a series of reforms including demonetisation, GST, IBC, scrapping of Article 370 and so on. Most of us grew up in scarcity. This generation has grown up in prosperity. The energy level of the country has gone up by several notches.
The G20 slogan has a lot of economic undercurrents. Was it an accidental coinage or has that to do with the PM’s understanding of economics?
Anand Raghavan: I find a common message around the PM’s development goals. Wherever the Prime Minister speaks, he is obsessed with ensuring that India becomes the third largest economy in quick time. We are fifth now. The world GDP is 100 trillion dollar and we are at 3.5. We represent one sixth of the world population. We need to get to 8% to 10% of the world GDP. That, I think, is clearly in his mind. His actions and policies like last mile delivery of welfare to the poor, upliftment of the downtrodden, getting states to align with the central economic policies aim at ensuring that.
Prof Kamakoti, how do you navigate criticism and controversies?
Dr Kamakoti: There are two things I have learnt. First is to respond to complaints. Second, if something is wrong, I just go and apologise.
India needs more Modis. How is he going to create more Modis?
Rajiv C Lochan: I feel that there's plenty already created. Look at how the public sector is so vibrant now. The Reserve Bank of India has given the highest ever dividend back to the government. Never in the history of the Reserve Bank has this kind of a thing happened. Every public servant is operating under an energy level that is much beyond where they were 10 or 15 years ago. I think that with or without Prime Minister Modi, this engine will continue. That's why I feel it is irreversible. There are enough and more successors ready, and all of them are equipped to
There are enough and more successors ready, and all of them are equipped to carry the agenda forward.
~ Rajiv Lochan
carry the agenda forward.
Dr S Vaidhyasubramaniam: Professor Kamakoti narrated about the Kashi Tamil Sangamam experience. I was also fortunate to work very closely with the Prime Minister for both the versions. I want to share a personal experience about the Sengol event that happened in the new building of the parliament. I was so privileged to be participating in that event because I was given the responsibility of bringing all the aadheenams together. If you had noticed the photos, I was the only person inside the parliament building wearing white shirt and white dhoti. The rest were all in saffron.
What resonated with me at that point of time was a specific question that came from the PMO as to how a Pime Minister should greet the aadheenams. I said, “Typically, the way in which we do vandanam to gurus is by prostrating before them.” The next day morning, it was a pleasant surprise to see the Prime Minister doing shashtang namaskar to the entire aadheenams who assembled there. He was demonstrating hope, faith and belief in such a civilisational parampara. We are so privileged and proud about this.
Recently, we all celebrated the Indian cricket team's victory in the T20 World Cup after 17 years. This win demonstrated how a team can come together to achieve something significant, like winning a championship.
During our time in school and college, there is rarely any emphasis on teamwork. It's mostly about individual performance—who scores the highest, who finishes first. Teamwork is often overlooked. But today, to survive and thrive in this competitive world, a functional and effective team is essential. Patrick Lencioni, the author of The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, offers valuable insights. He identifies five dysfunctions of a team:
1.Absence of trust
Panellists explore Patrick Lencioni’s book ‘The Five Dys‐functions of a Team: A Leadership Fable.’ Sreenivassan Ramaprasad, Director, CADD Centre Training Services led the conversation with A S Venkatesh, Managing Director, Popular Foundations Pvt Ltd and Reshma Budhia, Co‐founder & CEO, TOSS the COIN Ltd. .
2.Fear of conflict
3.Lack of commitment
4.Avoidance of accountability
5.Inattention to results
In his book, he gives specific examples, such as when a new CEO joins an organisation and attempts to transform the team. One of the main reasons trust is built is through a willingness to share weaknesses and vulnerabilities.
Without this openness, trust can't develop, and we all know that many people hesitate to share these personal aspects. In the book, Catherine, the new CEO, asks employees to share about themselves, and there is noticeable hesitation and resistance, clearly showing that the team members don't trust one another. This absence of trust is the first dysfunction and leads to the second—fear of conflict.
In organisations, we often have many meetings with team members, yet differing views or conflicts are rarely debated with passion. People typically agree with the leader's point of view, and few speak up, feigning harmony. There is no real debate due to a fear of conflict. As a society, we tend to avoid conflict, and this avoidance carries over into teams. However, the best outcomes often arise from healthy disagreements and an agreement to disagree. When diverse perspectives are considered, the team can arrive at the best possible decision. Without conflict, decisions are mediocre at best, which is the second dysfunction.
The third dysfunction stems from this fear of conflict—lack of commitment. When meetings end without clear roles and responsibilities, tasks are not completed effectively. This lack of commitment hampers progress.
The fourth dysfunction is avoidance of accountability. Every team member has responsibilities,
One thing I've realised as a leader in my organisation is that I was mistaking goodness for performance.
~ A.S. Venkatesh
but when it comes to delivering results, accountability often falls short. Team members hesitate to confront someone who isn't holding up their end, for example, if a person is consistently late on a project. This lack of accountability prevents the team from functioning properly.
Finally, the fifth dysfunction is inattention to results. At the end of the day, what are we striving for as a team? If team members focus more on their
personal goals than on the organisation's goals, the team loses its cohesiveness and fails to achieve its desired results. Lencioni also offers suggestions on how to overcome them.
A.S. Venkatesh: One thing I've realised as a leader in my organisation is that I was mistaking goodness for performance. Being nice, helpful, or pleasant does not guarantee that someone should keep their job, yet I was making this mistake with my employees. If someone was sweet and helpful, even if they weren’t delivering on their responsibilities, I hesitated to take action. This mindset is something we grow up with, but I’ve come to understand that it’s a big problem. I need to separate niceness from performance and make decisions based on results.
Focusing on results should be the guiding principle. This is something I’ve learned personally and want to emphasise throughout my organisation. If you ask me for one key takeaway, it would be that: focus on results. We need to drill this into the team consistently. We can’t be carried away by nice or helpful behaviour alone.
I’m reminded of that moment in the book when Catherine says, "I was fired at one of my earlier jobs because I tolerated Fred." That line really struck me. She said, "I tolerated Fred. I should have fired him, but because I didn’t, I got fired." That’s a powerful lesson. If there’s one thing I’ll always remember, it’s that tolerance of poor performance can have serious consequences.
You handle two different organisations. One, a profitable organisation and the other one—the Rotary, a not-for-profit organisation. If one thing which is applicable in the team functioning or dysfunction in both, what would that be?
A.S. Venkatesh: There are a lot of similarities in team performance whether you're for profit or not for profit.
True empowerment comes when team members are also held accountable.
~Sreenivassan Ramaprasad
Where it differs is in decision making at the top level. In a for-profit organization, you can tell down the line, 'Do this.' In a not-for-profit organization where there are volunteers, you cannot command them to do what you want to do. In one, you're dealing with hierarchy. In a not-for-profit voluntary body, you are not dealing with hierarchy but with peers. The way decisions are taken and conflicts are managed are very different.
Reshma Budhia: As the founder of a small company, when you first start hiring, it's an intense and personal experience. You hire your first employee, then your fifth, seventh, and eventually your tenth. At that stage, you’re deeply invested in their individual success. You find yourself thinking, "Don't worry, I will make sure you succeed. I'll walk this journey with you and help you reach your next step." These early hires are all individual contributors reporting directly to you, and you feel a strong sense of responsibility for guiding their careers.
However, as your organization grows to 35, 40, or 50 people, it becomes impossible to maintain that same level of personal investment in every individual’s career. At this stage, it’s essential to create layers within the organisation—not to build a hierarchy, but to establish focus groups. The shift in focus moves from individual
As leaders, are we ready to accept when we are wrong? Doing so can set the tone for the rest of the team, showing them that there’s nothing wrong with being vulnerable.
~ A.S. Venkatesh
performance to team performance.
Lately, I’ve been asking myself: Am I investing enough in my immediate leadership team? To address this, we recently launched a leadership program two weeks ago. It's a weekly program specifically designed for my seven direct reportees. The goal is to invest in team performance, as previously, we were too focussed on individual contributors. This realisation wasn't just a takeaway; it drove immediate action. I tend to be aggressive and action-oriented, so I quickly turned this insight into a concrete program, which we have already implemented.
Sreenivassan Ramaprasad: I recall a situation at CADD Center where one of our leaders in the West was supporting a customer who hadn’t been paying on time. Despite this, the customer had an urgent service requirement. My instruction to the leader was, "Don’t provide the service until they clear the payments." However, he responded, "At this point, we need to support the customer. I’ll take responsibility and be accountable for collecting the payment, but I will ensure the customer’s happiness."
Though there was a conflict, I chose to support his decision. He went ahead and provided the service,
making the customer extremely happy, and the payment was eventually made. As a leader, you sometimes need to give your team members the flexibility to make decisions, even when it involves some risk. Of course, if the payment hadn’t been collected, I would have been accountable for that. But if we want our team members to take ownership of their decisions, we must empower them. True empowerment comes when team members are also held accountable.
A.S. Venkatesh: In the example you narrated, you acknowledged that you were wrong. As a leader, you were willing to admit that your decision wasn't the right one, and your team member’s approach was better. This is something that stood out to me.
The key takeaway here is: As leaders, are we ready to accept when we are wrong? Doing so can set the tone for the rest of the team, showing them that there’s nothing wrong with being vulnerable. Everyone is human, and that vulnerability helps build the trust that is so essential in a team. Trust emerges when team members see that their leader is also vulnerable and open to learning, just like they are. In this case, when you said, "Okay, I'll go with your judgment," you were essentially admitting that your initial judgment wasn’t correct.
That kind of vulnerability is crucial in creating an environment where others feel safe and aligned. They understand that the boss is also human, just like them. This makes it easier for everyone to open up, collaborate, and contribute.
Many people hesitate to admit when they don’t know something. They try to protect themselves, and in doing so, they often fail to achieve their goals. They view seeking help as a sign of weakness. Among the five dysfunctions explained in the book, Venkatesh, which one do you see most often in your work environment?
A.S. Venkatesh: Lack of accountability is something that concerns me as the head of the company because I encounter it frequently. As a group, we often tend to settle for the least common denominator. If there are 10 different skill sets within the group, everyone tends to align with the lowest level of skill. Anything beyond that can lead to conflict, discord, and disharmony. As a result, the accountability for what we set out to achieve at the beginning is lost.
This afternoon, I sent out a circular to my core group to initiate a brainstorming session on defining our goals. Everyone has responded. Getting the team’s buy-in is crucial for ensuring
Reshma Budhia: second dysfunction—fear Conflict is often associated with fear, making negative. However,
of team building. As experts in your respective fields, you bring different perspectives, opinions, and disagreements, which may be perceived as conflict. Unfortunately, many people think conflict is something to avoid or run away from.
I once took on a project to translate the holy book of the Jains, called Bhaktamar Stotra, from Hindi to English. They specifically wanted someone who wasn’t Jain, so I could approach the translation with objectivity. It was a year-long exercise, and one beautiful sentence from the book stayed with me: 'Fear is an emotion. Fearlessness is an action.' When you take you feel is fear. It’s simple realise why people freeze in conflict, they freeze because they need to act, even in the
presence of fear. It’s okay to disagree—have the conflict, bring it to the table, and work through it. But don’t avoid it.
Among the five dysfunctions presented by Patrick Lencioni, which one do you find the most challenging to address?
A S Venkatesh: The most challenging dysfunction for me is the lack of commitment. In meetings, discussions often remain vague and non-specific. Everyone talks a lot, but nothing concrete is said. This goes back to the idea that errors of omission often go unnoticed, while errors of commission are highly visible. Not doing something may never be noticed, but doing something wrong will be. As a result, people tend to take the path of least resistance by avoiding action altogether, which is a common issue in dysfunctional teams where no one commits to anything.
An alternative would be to issue directives from the top, but that’s not true teamwork. Every team member should feel like they contributed and that decisions were made collectively. It’s important to shift the focus from my goals to our goals. We need to ensure that the team subscribes to collective goals rather than just individual ones. That’s an area I would prioritise.
Reshma Budhia: Commitment and accountability are most challenging for the team when they don’t share a common vision or have genuine buy-in. We often start by providing them with a vision, hoping they will embrace it as if it were their own. In today’s startup world, we need to build teams with an entrepreneurial mindset—teams where each member has skin in the game. In large corporations, it's often just about processes, workflows, and KRAs (Key Result Areas).
Do you have any mechanisms or practices in place to share the vision, ensuring that all team members are aligned and speak the same language?
Often, vision statements are too company‐centered. For the vision to truly resonate, it needs to be person‐ or employee‐centered.
~ Reshma Budhia
Reshma Budhia: Often, vision statements are too company-centered. For the vision to truly resonate, it needs to be person- or employee-centered. As a design thinking practitioner, I believe the first step is empathy. Use empathy to build your entire company. It’s not just a buzzword; it means that every person who walks into the company should feel that the vision statement was written for them.
For example, our company’s vision isn’t anything grand—it’s simply about being the happiest workplace. "Happy" is a significant word for us. We strive to create a workplace that enables happy employees. Ultimately, we aim to be a place of abundance.
Which of the five dysfunctions is the most crucial to overcome for a team to be effective?
A.S. Venkatesh: It’s really a combination of all of them. In the Indian context, the most critical factor is empowering everyone in the team to speak their mind— not to hurt anyone, but in the interest of the common good. If we can create an environment where people have the courage and desire to speak up, that will be the biggest catalyst for a functioning team.
From my experience, I’ve noticed that in meetings, no one comes forward with creative or innovative ideas. But afterward, they’ll approach me individually with
suggestions, worried that their ideas might be stolen by others. This lack of trust is a recipe for disaster. If we can foster a culture where everyone feels safe to speak up without fear and distrust of their colleagues, we’ll have a well-functioning team.
When everyone agrees within the first five minutes of a meeting, I sense something is wrong. It’s essential to encourage people to speak up and share their thoughts.
How is your tolerance for mistakes in your organisation?
A.S. Venkatesh: Tolerance for a repeated mistake depends on how the first one was handled. It’s almost instinctual, like Pavlov's response. We need to build a culture where reactions are directed at thoughts and ideas, rather than at individuals. As CEO, it’s my job to ensure that this culture permeates throughout the team, so that in group discussions, people feel encouraged to engage with ideas, not personalities.
Reshma Budhia: What resonates most with me is the fear of conflict. Conflict often arises from differing points of view and perspectives, which are valuable and come from each person’s experience and expertise. We need to teach our teams how to share their perspectives without emotional baggage. We discuss the urgent vs important quadrant in our office and I ask everyone, including the quietest person to put up their post and express their views. This approach helps everyone feel heard and valued, ensuring that each person has a voice.
It’s unfair to assume that if someone is an introvert, they lack opinions. We provide alternative ways for them to share their thoughts, creating an environment where they feel comfortable expressing themselves. Additionally, for meetings longer than 30 minutes, it’s
It’s unfair to assume that if someone is an introvert, they lack opinions. We provide alternative ways for them to share their thoughts...
~ Reshma Budhia
a good practice to serve food. Providing snacks like popcorn, chocolates, or other treats can help overcome mental fatigue and encourage participation. When people are munching on something, they’re more likely to engage and contribute.
One last question. What is your message to leaders on team dysfunctions?
Reshma Budhia: A team goes through four stages: forming, storming, norming, and performing. There is no shortcut. In the book, Catherine outlines these stages as a year-long journey, which demonstrates the patience required. In our fast-paced environment with constant client deliverables, it’s easy to overlook this process. However, when building a team, it’s crucial to invest in training and find a method to manage the madness. Patience and intention are essential to guide a team through these stages effectively.
A.S. Venkatesh: My message to leaders is simple: Embrace vulnerability. Make mistakes, but own up to them. Don’t try to create an image that you won’t fail. Being human and acknowledging your mistakes will lead to greater success and create a more genuine and effective team environment.
V Rajendran Chairman, DiSAI
Crime is quite old. When the first man and woman came on earth, crime also came in simultaneously. Crime has penetrated technology, and technology has also penetrated crime. There are three sides to a crime and we call it the crime or fraud triangle. The first side is the intention, need, greed or the urge to commit a crime. The second is rationalisation or justification of the crime. In movies, if a hero commits a crime, it is acceptable and if a villain commits the crime, it is not acceptable. The third is the opportunity.
We must be focussed on reducing the opportunity to commit a crime and for this, everyone must have awareness. The less we give opportunity, the less we'll be victimized in a crime. Nowadays, to become a
In today's rapidly evolving digital landscape, securing the future of payments is paramount. There is an imperative need for constant innovation, agile adaptation to emerging threats, and unwavering commitment to regulatory compliance. A compilation of speeches delivered at the event—“Securing the Future of Digital Safe Payments.”
cybercrime victim is extremely simple. If you give your mobile phone to someone, within a minute, they can inject it with a malware and can keep tracing your phone. Associations like Digital Security Association of India and seminars and conferences on digital security are all focused on how we can avoid giving any opportunity for crimes. Often, we share confidential data, click unsolicited links or fall into traps. We should not become vulnerable to frauds.
Uma Sankar Regional Director, RBI
Being in the Reserve Bank, we are also privy to certain latest types of cybercrimes that are taking place. The number of cybercrime complaints have risen from 9.67 lakh in 2022 to 11.5 lakh in 2023. In terms of amount, it is a whopping
Rs.5,574 crore, which was reported just between January and October 2023. It is significantly higher than the corresponding figures of 2022. The types of financial frauds basically include customer care number frauds, KYC based frauds, Aadhaar enabled payment systems based frauds, etc. In the Aadhaar enabled payment transactions, even dummy or rubber fingers are being used to falsify biometric authentication. While we thought that biometrics is the ultimate safeguard, even that is being falsified. Micro ATMs are misused to siphon off money.
The amount of recovery of money has been abysmally low—just 10%. Each one of us has a role to play and if we play our part well, perhaps we can try to minimise, if not completely avoid or root out cybercrime. We are living in a digital world and many of us do not go to a bank today. Net banking was considered to be a safe haven, but even here, frauds are being committed. We have the QR code-based cashless digital payments. RBI is also backing the Central Bank
Digital Currency (CBDC). Cryptocurrency is speculative in nature and does not have any backing. The RBI governor has frequently warned against crypto, though the technology on which it rides—the blockchain—lends itself to wonderful benefits for the entire financial ecosystem. There is no escape from artificial intelligence and machine learning but we have also seen how hackers use AI today to mimic our own voices and victimise us. Technology is always a double-edged
In the recent past, RBI has come down very heavily on certain entities, which, having promised digital products, have not been able to deliver that, resulting in a lot of customer inconvenience.
~ Uma Sankar
Also, there is a myth that QR code can be used for receiving as well as sending payments. But please be aware that it is meant only for sending payments and not for receiving money.
~ Uma Sankar
sword. I am not advocating that we get back to the bullock cart age and don't do any digital transactions. Of course, we need to do it but we have to be aware. The RBI has brought out a series of comics called Raju and the 40 Thieves. We keep updating it with the latest financial crimes including cybercrimes.
We must use a three-pronged approach to safeguard us and it involves people; processes; and policies and governance frameworks. People must be empowered through training and awareness on cyber hygiene. When we go for supervision and auditing of entities, we emphasise these things and we see whether the governance and their assurance are functioning in the regulated entities. We look at the IT systems and if it meets our expectations.
In the recent past, RBI has come down very heavily on certain entities, which, having promised digital products, have not been able to deliver that, resulting in a lot of customer inconvenience. We have all the antivirus, firewall, intrusion detection, software updates and Vulnerability Assessment & Penetration Testing (VAPT). When the banks and other regulated entities also have them in their place, they can minimise the incidence of cyber frauds.
We come across social media frauds, mobile
security breach, near field communication frauds, SIM swapping, FinTech frauds and so on. At RBI, we conduct many outreach programs and educate the public on various methods to be cyber-safe. We have been actively collaborating with the police, the State governments and the government of India to make people more aware about what they can do at an individual level.
You must have heard about ‘limited liability,’ which the Reserve Bank has introduced. If any cyber fraud is reported to the bank by a customer through a visit or call to the bank or to the call centre, then the bank becomes responsible for any money siphoned off from the customer’s account after the fraud is reported. Then we have an important circular for outsourcing of IT services. When any entity grows, they can't do everything inhouse. We have asked the banks to follow certain digital payment security controls. We have directions on UPIs and the comprehensive cyber security framework.
The Reserve Bank of India through various regulations has been trying to have a level playing field between various entities. Earlier, we used to have a separate set of instructions for commercial banks, for non-banking financial companies, and for cooperative banks. Now we have realised that there are certain common minimum standards, which any entity has to adhere to.
We have the Integrated Banking Ombudsman scheme. Some of the big corporate banks are supposed to have an internal ombudsman who will process your complaint and see if it's justified. If, even after a month, your grievance is not redressed, you can approach the RBI portal and apply under the integrated banking
ombudsman scheme by producing sufficient documentary evidence that you have been scammed; that you have informed the bank (date to be specified); and that you have approached the bank in the first instance to get your grievance redressed but it stands unaddressed or you are not happy with the redressal of the grievance.
Also, there is a myth that QR code can be used for receiving as well as sending payments. But please be aware that it is meant only for sending payments and not for receiving money. Many people have been duped without this awareness. Recently, we come across many investment scams. Even some of our educated colleagues who have been dealing in the stock market have been duped. They buy stocks based on the advice of an investment analyst or a broker and their stock prices go up. They invest more and when they want to sell those shares for a profit, things will not move. Then only they realise that they have been scammed.
In social engineering scams such as the FedEx parcel scam, the scamster digitally arrests you in your home and terrorise you that you are not even able to even respond. They somehow manage to jam your phones and you are not able to make any calls. If someone says that the police is going to arrest you, just say, ‘Thank you for the information. I will contact the nearest police station.’ One of our retired colleagues received such a call and the scamster told him that he has to verify his bank statement for any unauthorised transaction and asked him to send some money. How can anyone verify an account by one transaction? He sensed something sinister and said, ‘Thank you very much. I will take care.”
In the recent past, even the Reserve Bank governor's signature was forged and scam letters were sent soliciting deposits from people. Then links were sent for revival of accounts. Sharing passwords or pins have become slightly cliched. Currently, the modus operandi
The cybercriminals operate like a business. We compete hard but we play the defence and catch‐up game while they play offensively.
~ Benjamin Ambrose
is sending you a suspicious link, which is basically sending you a link for doing something very legitimate. Once you click that, the entire contents of your mobile or money in your account get wiped out.
The Reserve Bank has found that fraudsters take over the accounts of very poor people from marginalized sections, who do not have much awareness but who look up for a quick way of earning money. They sell their passbooks or accounts for a certain sum of money. Within a short period, these accounts would see huge inflow and outflow of money, obviously linked to money laundering. We have cautioned banks to monitor suspicious transactions and reported to Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU). Such things can’t be traced manually. They must be tracked only through software.
The MLM schemes—the pyramid kinds of schemes are also going up today. The instant loan app fraud is on the rise. The apps are very malicious and fake. Basically poor people who want very small sums of money use these apps and they end up being extorted for huge sums of money. The RBI has issued digital lending guidelines to make the customers, as well as the banks, aware about their duties and responsibilities so that they should not become victims.
Avoid loan apps that are not affiliated with any RBI registered bank or NBFC. All the others are unregulated and could be illegal also. These are some of the safeguards that we must follow. Don't download any app from App Store which is unverified. Avoid loan apps which don't have clear cut terms and conditions. Check the lenders’ website for a physical address, and especially if the lender is giving suspiciously attractive interest rates.
Though we have educated members of the public, we feel that greed is something common to all. People fall prey to greed and invest in schemes that promise 15% or 20% return. The return is great in the beginning but that runs out after three or four months and the principal is entirely lost. We have a state level coordination committee headed by the Chief Secretary of the State and the Reserve Bank of India, who is the convener of the forum. It meets every quarter and we provide market intelligence inputs to the forum, so that the law enforcement agencies are able to take it forward.
An indicative list of safeguards:
• Do not use open Wifi.
• Install antivirus on your mobile.
• Do not log into internet banking in browsing centers.
• Do not use unauthorised loan apps.
• Use social media pages wisely.
• Manage your debit card and credit cards. Place limits on your cards, with which, you can limit your loss.
• Don’t share OTP and CVV.
• Do not install apps from unauthorised sources
• Review your mobile app permissions regularly.
• Lodge any complaints of loss within the golden hour.
Benjamin Ambrose
Chief Information Security Officer
(CISO),
National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI)
UPI is one of our flagship products. We have products like AEPS, which is Aadhar Enabled Payment System. We have around 10 plus products. We are enabling CBDC (digital currency) on behalf of RBI. We are considered predominantly as a network, just as the network service providers for credit cards. Networks have a responsibility in stemming these frauds. Banks and third party application service providers are the second part of the ecosystem.
We ensure that cyber security processes, technology and people are really attuned to what they do. Even when a small feature is introduced in UPI, we, along with the fraud risk management team, collaborate, look at the abuse cases, think of what can happen, and we present it to various internal committees, board risk management committee and also the RBI. A lot of thought process goes behind launching even a minor feature in the market. Since the technology explosion happened, India has leapfrogged. We went straight into mobile and that too, mostly smartphones. Unfortunately, mobile is a complicated space. I was working with banks five years ago. As an information cyber security expert, I told them that we must shut down our mobile banking application if we sense that the device is jail broken. The head of business stared at me and asked me, “Ben, do you want me to drop
$500 million business on the table?” I was doing a regional role while he was managing 14 markets across Asia Pacific. But after two years, I was able to convey my point. The regulators have also stepped up their game. The Monetary Authority of Singapore was one of the thought leaders in this space across Asia Pacific, besides the RBI. The cybercriminals operate like a business. We compete hard but we play the defence and catch-up game while they play offensively. That is why, education and awareness is key. Criminals play on the minds of the people. NPCI is spending a lot of money on prime time advertisements where we educate people. It is a hard game. I've been in this industry for 20 years. Day in and day out, we fix technological vulnerabilities, but it is difficult to fix the vulnerabilities of people. We always say that our staff can be our weakest links, because they click on a phishing link and download malware into our environment. The malware spreads and we do not have any control.
The RBI has come up with a program called DPIP: Digital Payments Intelligence Platform. A protocol will be defined by this committee in which every player, networks, banks and third-party application providers will be given specific instructions on how to share intelligence in a centralised manner and how to consume data. There is common minimum cyber hygiene for every financial institution at varying levels. We cannot expect a cooperative bank to be operating or competing at the level of an international bank. DPIP will give a level playing field to everyone.
In NPCI, we try to pass intelligence, especially in the mule account activity and anti-money laundering activity, back to the banks. But our transactions are mostly small ticket items. The amount of information that we feed to the banks is huge. They, in turn, use
The frauds are big in number, though the value of the fraud is very small.
~ R Lakshmi Venkatesh
auto diallers to reach out to customers. As a customer, if I get an automated voice message from the bank, I feel really suspicious and doubt if it is genuine or from a fraudster. It is totally ineffective. Even when the bank decides to call the customer for at least high ticket items, the customer gets irritated.
What we recommend as part of the DPIP program is that the banks should go and ask the next steps like, ‘What is the purpose of the transfer?’ to see if we can warn the customers before they end up in a fraud. To summarise, the customers have to play their part; and the ecosystem, along with the regulator, has to play their part together. We cannot eliminate frauds but we can certainly strive towards minimising them.
R Lakshmi Venkatesh General Manager, Indian Overseas Bank.
Ialways used to say that fear and greed are the two elements which contribute to the digital payment frauds. But now, I would like add ‘curiosity’ to the list. We have approximately one crore digital payment
transactions every day. That is approximately 30 crore transactions every month. Out of this, roughly 90 percentage is UPA transactions. All other digital payment channels, like cards, ATM transactions, IMPS, AEPS based transactions contribute to about 10 to 12 percentage. As a banker, I can confidently say that the digital payment frauds are not happening because of the flaws in the system. It is more because of psychological reasons and the fraudsters entice people to make some compromise.
One of the recent frauds is the employment scam. They post on Facebook or WhatsApp about part-time jobs and ask you to click a link. It arouses your curiosity and you click the link. They start with Rs 5000 as payment if you complete some tasks. They then keep on increasing the amount but ask you to make a caution deposit of one lakh. If you have already received Rs 2000 or Rs 5000, you trust them. They add you in a WhatsApp group. You see many people there and there are so many messages. They send you a QR code to make the deposit but once you make the payment, you are removed the group. UPI transaction has a cap of one lakh rupees per day.
The frauds are big in number, though the value of the fraud is very small. Similar modus operandi is followed for share market trading frauds.
Never allow anyone to help you in withdrawing the money while you are in an ATM. Do not trust anyone. They may swap the card and you will take their card thinking it is the original. We get calls about expiry of credit cards and debit cards or about overshooting the due date for electricity payments. They threaten that electricity will be disconnected if we don’t make payments. In all such cases, remain calm and reveal no information or try to confuse the caller.
Raghavendra K Ravi
Dy. Superintendent of Police, Cyber Crime Wing, T.N. Police, Chennai
People always want comfort. We don't want our ego to be touched or cross-questioned. We think we are supreme. We don't want to consult. We take our own decisions. This is very good. But when a terrorist enters a country, when cyber pornography is happening, when cyber security is breached and cyber scams spread across like coronavirus, we cannot have ego. We have to enter the field. It applies to all–the regulators, bankers, policemen, citizens and everybody. It's a war zone and we are fighting cyber terrorism.
When people lose money to frauds, it is pathetic to see their plight. Their hands shiver even while signing a complaint letter. One of the victims told me that he brought all his money saved in Muscat and for the last one month, he had been lured into stock trading and scammed of 6 crores. He lost all his hard earned money. I generally promise the victims that I will catch hold of the cyber criminals—they should be called cyber gundas and place them before the victims. Otherwise, the victims will lose their peace of mind and life.
The daughter of a senior official working in a government department was searching for a suitable groom on a matrimony website. She selected a UK doctor hailing from Chandigarh. But she fell into a trap and lost Rs 18 lakhs in just six hours. I investigated the
Through
sophisticated
ways, our money is siphoned off to other countries like Cambodia, Hong Kong and Taiwan. It becomes beyond our reach.
~ Raghavendra K Ravi
case for 16 days during which, 800 phone numbers were scrutinised. I filtered three numbers and went to Delhi. I found that 36 bank accounts had been opened. I analysed the accounts and it took me to Aligarh where I got two persons, each having ten debit cards in one hand and another ten in the other hand. I went with a stun gun because I was dealing with cyber gundas. They have a better infrastructure than most of the departments in the government.
If you have more than 10 SIM cards, you will be imprisoned for three years but here I seized 1000s of SIMs from a single place, buried in the sand in Jharkhand. This is beyond imagination. Finally, I cracked the lady’s case. The scamster was a Nigerian who had uploaded another married person’s photo in the matrimonial website. He called the girl, pretending as if he was calling from Delhi airport. “Honey. I brought costly jewellery, laptops and other gifts for you from UK. But I am apprehended by the customs department. I need money to come out of it.” The girl believed the story and ended up losing her Rs 18 lakhs. Through sophisticated ways, our money is siphoned off to other countries like Cambodia, Hong Kong and Taiwan. It becomes beyond our reach. One police constable who became a victim of a cyber fraud committed suicide. Do not allow the cyber virus to enter your house. My sincere advice is that people should believe in the system and not be carried away by ego.
Capt. D P Ramachandran
Author
As a young boy growing up in the 1950s, I was tormented by the history I learned in school, which portrayed India as being subjugated by much smaller European countries. How could foreigners come here and rule over us? It was something my young mind couldn't comprehend.
The sense of shame I felt was so intense that I told my father his entire generation was full of cowards. He defended himself saying he never served the British but only the Maharaja of Travancore. I pushed him further, arguing that Travancore was a princely state that had accepted British supremacy. It took years of growing up and much learning about our country's past before I could reconcile with the actions of our previous generations.
MMA‐KAS, in collaboration with the Colours of Glory Foundation, hosted a discussion on the theme of the book Unconquered Horizons: Southern India’s Resistance Icons, authored by Capt. D.P. Ramachandran ﴾Retd﴿, Founder & Chairman of the Colours of Glory Foundation.
One great consolation was realising that we were not truly cowardly but rather disorganised. The concept of India as a nation had not yet been born. There was no central authority to unite us. The once-powerful Mughal Empire was disintegrating, and the Marathas,
I’m sure like‐minded individuals existed elsewhere in India as well, but the southern chapter was unique. Nowhere else in India did the British face such stubborn resistance from ordinary people.
who had emerged as the greatest challengers to the Mughals under Chhatrapati Shivaji, had also splintered into factions. Adding to this disarray were the numerous rajas and nawabs—some of our native rulers so self-centered and short-sighted that they laid out the red carpet for the colonialists. With their opulent lifestyles and internecine strife, they were the greatest villains in the colonial drama. I don’t even blame the British as much as I blame these figures. The British, after all, simply took what was there for the taking. If anyone showed even a modicum of self-respect during that era of disgrace, it was the personalities I attempt to portray in this book (Unconquered Horizons: Southern India’s Resistance Icons), at least in the context of southern India. I’m sure like-minded individuals existed elsewhere in India as well, but the southern chapter was unique. Nowhere else in India did the British face such stubborn resistance from ordinary people. These individuals were led by exceptionally noble native leaders who cared for their people and
loved their land of birth.
Somehow, these stories of resistance don’t find a place in the general narrative of Indian history. Even after independence, our historians followed a narrative that was espoused by the British. That narrative was intended for the shareholders of the East India Company in England, painting rosy pictures of British victories, starting with Plassey. But Plassey was no battle at all—the enemy generals were bribed to desert the battlefield.
The entire North was a cakewalk for the British. In contrast, they had to fight half a century of bloody battles to subjugate the South and the whole of peninsular India. Even in this period, their history highlights only the defeat and killing of Tipu Sultan and the overcoming of the Maratha Confederacy. The innumerable struggles in the South get obscured. It was during my research on the history of the South Indian
soldiery—the predecessors of today’s Madras Regiment, Madras Engineers, and some southern-origin cavalry and infantry regiments in the Indian Army—that I discovered these magnificent men and women who valued their honour more than their lives.
I would feel it a sacrilege if I didn’t tell their story. Of the 15 personalities I’ve chosen to highlight, only three died of natural causes. Ten were either killed in action or executed. One was killed during an escape attempt, and one was tortured to death while incarcerated. That speaks volumes about their sacrifice.
I feel their immortal spirits loom large over India’s horizon, inspiring us and future generations.
Dr. Nanditha Krishna
Historian and Founder, C.P. Art Centre
My focus has been on ancient Indian culture, which means my historical knowledge largely ends in the 7th century AD. Until recently, I didn't pay much attention to events beyond that period. However, three years ago, during the Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav, the Government of India contacted our institute to contribute to a website on unknown heroes and heroines of India. We compiled around 440 names and added them to the website. This research made me realise how much South India contributed to the freedom movement—perhaps even more than other parts of India.
While Bhagat Singh is celebrated for assassinating a police officer, few remember Vanchinathan, who assassinated a British collector, Robert Ashe. Ashe was responsible for closing down V.O. Chidambaram Pillai's Swadeshi Shipping Company, revoking his barrister's
We must use our
influence to ensure that NCERT and state governments include the stories of these freedom fighters in social science textbooks.
license, arresting him, and destroying him. Vanchinathan, enraged by this, shot Ashe and immediately took his own life, leaving behind a letter dedicating his sacrifice to his motherland. These are the great heroes of our freedom struggle. Unfortunately, while we are well-acquainted with the freedom fighters from North India, we know very little about those from South India. We learn in detail about Robert Clive and Warren Hastings, but hardly anything about those who opposed them.
As early as 1674, Sardar Ali, the chief of the MysoreCalicut province, laid siege to the British military barracks at Thalassery for 18 months. In 1718, native sepoys rebelled against the East India Company at Vishakhapatnam, though they were all killed. In 1775, the Madras Council decided to send the ninth battalion stationed at Trichy to Bombay, but the soldiers refused. The acting Commandant, Muctoom Sahib, and his associates were executed by being blown away from the mouth of a cannon. Similarly, in 1795, Indian sepoys in the Madras army who refused to fight the Dutch in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) were also blown away by cannons.
Not long ago, I watched a film about Kunjali Marakkar. Until then, I hadn’t known that the Marakkars, a family that spanned four generations, were
instrumental in defending the western seaports against the Portuguese in Kerala. If there are no Portuguese in Kerala today, it is because of the Marakkar family. We also had women like Rani Abbakka Chowta and Kittur Rani Chennamma who fought against the British and sacrificed their lives. These queens suffered immensely, as women often do in times of war.
However, the anti-British revolution truly began in Tamil Nadu, and it was fierce. Leaders like Puli Thevar, Rani Velu Nachiyar, Kattabomman and his brothers, the Marudu brothers, and Dheeran Chinnamalai chose death over submission to the British. When Rani Velu Nachiyar’s husband was killed in 1780, she fled Sivaganga, where he had been king. For eight years, she built up an army of 4,000 women, led by the commander Kuyili. When they realised they couldn’t defeat the British in direct combat, Kuyili made an extraordinary sacrifice—she doused herself in oil, set herself alight, and leapt into the British ammunition depot, destroying it. The British were forced to sign a treaty with Rani Velu Nachiyar, and she ruled her kingdom. Her daughter too succeeded her on the throne.
We all know about the Palaiyakkarars, or Poligars, who protected the people and collected taxes, which the East India Company coveted. This led to a series of wars. Thanks to actor Sivaji Ganesan’s portrayal of Kattabomman in a popular film, we know about Kattabomman and his subsequent hanging. However, there were others like Puli Thevar, Chinnathambi Varaguna, and the Kallar tribes, who also waged battles. These uprisings often ended in public hangings and massacres—not just of the fighters, but of the entire population of those regions, including women and children. Dheeran Chinnamalai, the Palayakkarar of
Palayamkottai, rebelled against both Hyder Ali and the British but was ultimately captured due to a betrayal.
You have probably heard of the Great Vellore Mutiny in 1806 when the British Indian Army rebelled against the British. Hindu sepoys were prohibited from wearing religious marks on their foreheads, while Muslim soldiers were forced to shave their beards and trim their moustaches. Turbans were replaced with hats. During the rebellion, the rebels killed 14 British officers and 115 men of the 69th regiment. Unfortunately, a relief force of British cavalry arrived from Arcot. The Nawab of Arcot was a staunch supporter of the British, and the superior British weaponry won the day. As usual, some men were shot from cannons, others were hanged, and the rest were deported to Malaya.
The Marudu brothers, Periya Marudu and Chinna Marudu, were perhaps the first Indians to conceive of India as a unified nation. In 1801, they called on the people to drive away the British. This led to the second Poligar War, which resulted in further deaths. The Marudu brothers issued a proclamation known as the Jambu Dweepa Prakadanam, which shook the East India Company. They posted it on the Trichy fort and at the Srirangam temple, urging all sections of society to unite against the Europeans. There were many others like Narasimha Reddy, Veera Rajendra Wodeyar, Pazhassi Raja, and Velu Thambi who also took up arms against the British.
Despite all this, our textbooks still glorify the British while downplaying the contributions of Indians. We must use our influence to ensure that NCERT and state governments include the stories of these freedom fighters in social science textbooks.
Air Marshal M Matheswaran AVSM, VM, Ph.D., Chairman & President of The Peninsula Foundation, Chennai
The primary source for much of our historical learning has been The History of India by Vincent Smith. During the Gupta period, there was an emperor named Samudra Gupta, who embarked on a campaign of conquest, advancing almost to the northern borders of Tamil Nadu. Vincent Smith describes him as a great emperor and even calls him the "Napoleon of India." However, Napoleon came 1,300 years later. Realistically, Napoleon should be called the "Samudra Gupta of France." Why is this discrepancy? Because Vincent Smith's history book became a foundational text for much of our learning
At school, we had a wonderful library that included R.C. Majumdar's five volumes of Indian History. Yet, in all those volumes, there were no more than 50 to 100 pages dedicated to South Indian history. The only book I found that thoroughly covered some aspects of South Indian history and its significance was A.L. Basham’s work, and ironically, Basham was British.
We know that Europeans first arrived in the 17th century as traders, only to eventually become occupiers. When you analyse the history of South India, particularly the Tamil region, you see that the Cheras, Cholas, Pandyas, and later the Pallavas were frequently at war with each other. We had a period of internal conflict lasting 2,000 years, with each kingdom trying to dominate the others. But when an invasion from the north occurred, the Tamil kingdoms united. Unfortunately, the Cheras, Cholas, and Pandyas disappeared after 2,000 years of continuous existence. Kerala became fragmented into smaller kingdoms.
Then came the magnificent Vijayanagar Empire,
At school, we had a wonderful library that included R.C. Majumdar's five volumes of Indian History. Yet, in all those volumes, there were no more than 50 to 100 pages dedicated to South Indian history.
which emerged in the aftermath of Malik Kafur’s invasions. However, the Battle of Talikota brought an end to the Vijayanagar Empire, leading to further fragmentation. The Palayams, which were administrative units under Vijayanagar, lost their central authority. As a result, the East India Company stepped in. Using the Nawab of Arcot, they invited 32 chieftains to a supposed peace meeting, only to imprison them and later exile them to Penang or Burma. The East India Company then recruited Indian sepoys, and it was this Indian army under their command that ultimately defeated many of our valiant heroes.
Rear Admiral R K Dhingra VSM Flag Officer Command, Tamil Nadu & Puducherry Naval Area
Stories of strife, struggle, war, and sacrifice need to be shared. The famous war of 1971 has been well-documented, and much has been written and said about it, largely because we are fortunate to have many firsthand witnesses who can share their stories. Without books like the one authored by Captain Ramachandran, the significance of the sword might have risked being forgotten.
In my 33 years of service, this is my first appointment in Southern India, and I feel immense gratitude to both the Service and God for this opportunity. Chennai has been our home for the last 16 months, and I can safely say that the history lessons in school never taught me as much about the Cholas, Cheras, Pandyas, Satavahanas, and Pallavas as I have learned in this region over the past year and a half. Whether it's the mesmerizing temple architecture, the historical trade routes, or the countless stories of brave kings from the region, the more I discover, the more there is to learn.
Military history would indeed be limited to only a
Military history would indeed be limited to only a handful of people if it were not shared with the world.
handful of people if it were not shared with the world. Kudos to the Colours of Glory Foundation for its selfless service in promoting awareness of India's proud military heritage—especially for highlighting how the southern states played an equal part in India's journey toward independence and in the rebirth of the nation. History, if not told, will fade away into oblivion.
