THINK!

During the last 100 years India has produced only two innovative ideas. The first was Gandhiji’s ‘Civil Disobedience’ and now Ratan Tata’s ‘Nano’. Mahatma Gandhi was undoubtedly the most creative Indian of the 20th century. Not since the concept of Taj Mahal was there any such idea that really fired the imagination of the people of India. Gandhiji was the only politician in India who ever visited all 610 districts of the country. He channelized his anger as well as his hopes into a single minded instrument of ‘passive resistance’ against the then ‘Mighty British Empire’ and forced them to negotiate with him the future of his country. Never before in the history of human struggle was there any such creative idea that was simple, logical and required the best in human management! Gandhiji forced people to THINK about freedom.

Not since the invention of ‘Yoga’ and scriptures like ‘Ramayana’ of ‘Valmiki’ has India invented something lasting, something immortal. Chanakya (Kautilya) boldly wrote ‘Arthashastra’, the first book on economics in the world, but how many people acknowledge that? A country that was so creative and so inventive has slipped to virtual anonymity as far as new ideas are concerned. How could that happen, what happened to our creative instincts? Maybe we lost ingenuity because of our political subjugation! India has hardly invented or created anything worthwhile in more than one full millennia. It has been sixty one years since India got its independence and we have not stopped being the nation of Baniyas (traders). We keep copying the ‘West’ and refuse to use our own brain as if we might spend it all if we keep using it!

First it was G D Birla and J R D Tata who stunted any creativity, then it was the Ambanis and Premjis who created huge companies without any real creativity of innovative product. In fact, neither spends enough on research and development. There are probably over a hundred dollar billionaires in India who have the financial muscle to put their money where their mouth is and spur the creative wave that India has not seen in a very long time. But these ‘Indian Billionaires’ are incapable of thinking about the future of Indian industry or even their own company in creative terms! Ratan Tata appears to be an exception in the Indian context. His one lakh rupee car named “Nano” (meaning small in Tata’s native language Gujarati) is a revolutionary concept in terms of simplicity of design, manufacturing and naturally the price! This Indian creative concept was nearly destroyed by a little creature called “Mamata Banerjee”! She would rather have her dirty Bengali politics.

Mamata Banerjee is a curse on West Bengal

Filed under: Corporate India, Indian Economy, Indian Technology Tagged: | "Nano", 'Arthashastra', 'Civil Disobedience', 'Mighty British Empire', 'passive resistance', 'Ramayana', 'Valmiki', Ambanis, Baniyas, Chanakya, G D Birla, Indian Billionaires, J R D Tata, Kautilya, Mahatma Gandhi, Mamata Banerjee, one lakh rupee car, Premjis, Ratan Tata, Taj Mahal, Tata Nano, Yoga