Knowledge is Power

 

The history of the world shows how dynamic the currents of time are. The countries that dominate today become has-beens tomorrow. 

The Greeks and Romans dominated the era from 2500 years back till 300 CE. The Egyptians and the Persians before that. The Islamic civilisations had their moment of flourish around the 9th to 11th century. Turkey with Ottomans in the middle of the last millennium. India in spurts during the reign of Ashoka, with the Gupta dynasty and then the Mughals.

But post the scientific revolution and enlightenment, the Western countries have retained their dominance for almost 500 years now. England, Germany, and France retain their leading positions.

In this relatively fast-changing world, power comes disproportionately from technology and new ideas. New theories of science and political economy or philosophy supply the framework for a society that produces advanced technology and knowledge. 

Increasingly power flows not from the barrel of a gun but from knowledge.  The US has produced the most original innovation and knowledge in the last 150 years and now it dominates the global order. With the direct and indirect benefits flowing from inventions like the nuclear bomb, internet, telephone, televisions and numerous other ones, it became the pre-eminent economic and military power. 

With AI and biotechnology, this will stay that way. Knowledge and its applications will become even more important in the power matrix. 

The countries that have open societies, and a liberal environment where dissent and criticism are allowed, create the most fertile ground for the production of new knowledge. 

So at this point in time, it is wiser to bet long-term on the liberal democracies in the West who still do the most original research in most fields over authoritarian regimes like China or Russia which sometimes can have short-term wins but don't have the necessary structural platform for retaining power.   

The Light that is Gandhi

 

Gandhi is a revered figure worldwide. Mandela, Martin Luther King, and Obama are among those who count him as their inspiration. The story in India is a little different though. There are M.G. roads (Mahatma Gandhi Road) in most cities, and he stares out from currency notes and Government publications but social media is full of ugly comments about him. His assassin Godse is now quite visible too in movies and birthday celebrations. 

It is difficult to kill Gandhi however. Lincoln played his part in trying to end slavery and Gandhi was the man who ended the other ill that afflicted the world - colonialism. If slavery was justified by assuming blacks to be inferior, colonialism rationalised the white man's superiority over natives. Power, money, and technology from the ebbs and flows of history are used as proxies for superior natural ability. Silly it may be, but this is what was the intellectual bulwark for all the principal social ills in history like slavery, colonialism, and caste.

To mobilise masses in a country with multiple languages, religions and a burden of feudalism was an enormous achievement by itself. To use that force in a non-violent way to drive out the British without too much rancour with both the victims (Indians) or the vanquished like the British is unprecedented.

Add to that his incredible personal simplicity, transparency in relationships, adherence to principles despite any obstacle, use of truth and love for all bar none yet remaining primarily a political leader is impossible to replicate.

He was also a deeply original thinker, fearless, and never afraid to take risks. He did not follow any defined path and built his own ideology and modus operandi for the freedom struggle.

There is nothing more noble on Indian Independence Day than to remember this great man, a frail-looking lawyer infused with the highest ideals of humanity. 

The Shadow of History

 The rebellion of 1857 in India against the British forces is a landmark event. In early May, sepoys in the cantonment in Meerut captured the government buildings and started the uprising. The next day they rode to Delhi and appointed the 82-year-old Bahadur Shah Zafar, the last Moghul emperor, then feeble and ruling actually over a small fraction of the city's area as their titular head. This gathered momentum and in a few weeks, sepoys all over the whole of North India had joined the rebellion. The Nana Saheb of Cawnpore, Laxmi Bai, and Begum Hazrat Mahal were the prominent rulers who also joined the fight.

There were many bloody battles. Two gruesome episodes in this period stand out. In Cawnpore, many British civilians were killed by the sepoys in the Bibighar massacre. After prolonged fights, the British managed to turn the tables and in September, captured Delhi again. The British forces were in a mood for revenge and they blocked Kashmere gate, the entry to what is now known as old Delhi. Over a period of 4 to 5 days, the English soldiers were allowed to kill all adult males. Many eyewitness accounts of those days speak about the streets and the river turning red with blood. It was horrific.

As a consequence of this, the crown formally then took over the administration of India from the East India Company. The next 90 years under the Raj had its own stories of loot, injustice and blood. 

India came down from contributing a quarter of the world's GDP in the early 18th century to just about an estimated 3 % in 1947 when the British left. It was wealth extraction on a massive scale.

At the same time, modern India today cannot live without Cricket( a sport it is obsessed with), bread, rail and even its passport to the world, the English language. Apart from the relatively new justice and administrative systems. 

The bad came with the good. Can this be undone? No, and it does not make sense to. The only purpose of history should be to understand it and to be aware of our current status and the structural forces that can affect us. The same dynamics existed between the allied countries like UK, US and France with Germany and Japan or even England with the US. Going back in history, similar patterns of conflicts and then mutual absorption occurred between kingdoms within India.

Those who forget history are condemned to repeat it but those who obsess over it and try to live the present with the battles of the past are also condemned to go inside its dark tunnels once again. 

Missing Federer

 The first decade of this century was his. He won his first slam in 2003 at Wimbledon and the last at the Australian Open in 2018. But his true period of dominance was from the 2003 Wimbledon to the 2010 Aus Open when out of 26 slams, he won an unprecedented 16 and was a runner-up in another 6.

The precision of movement, a scintillating backhand, the faint twitch in his facial muscles when under pressure, and supreme athleticism combined with sublime skills kept millions hooked to TV sets when he was playing especially on those Sunday evening finals. That sound of the racquet hitting the ball that was not excessively loud, just a hint of power; the almost supernatural sense of anticipation, and his shots landing on the lines like guided missiles made watching Fed so mesmerising. One of the regrets of my life was when he played in Delhi and I could not go and one of the blessings of the last decade was Federer continuing to play as long as he played. Sports at its finest elevates human experience like nothing else and Fed was the quintessential symbol of that.  

Nadal, Djokovic and maybe Laver did reach his superhuman heights but for accomplishments combined with aesthetic appeal and elegance, he remains unmatched.

Alcaraz is a treat to watch with his drop shots, top spin forehands and athletic ability. Djokovic continues to make us marvel with his tenacity and all-round ability but the void left by Federer can never possibly be filled.   

Milan Kundera dies at 94

 

(From my tribute to Kundera on FB)
Milan Kundera, a Czech novelist, died on Tuesday, 11th July at 94. For me, it is rather personal.

Years ago, I was a participant in a television quiz where apart from general awareness, we had a subject round where we could choose our own topic. I had stumbled into a review of ‘The Unbearable Lightness of Being’ by Kundera in the now defunct Gentleman magazine and then went on to read the book. It was exhilarating.

Over a period of time, I bought a few of his other works. I found his ability to distil profound truths of life through a mix of levity, seriousness, stories of resistance against the repression of the communist regimes in Eastern Europe and also hedonism beguiling. A few stayed with me.

One I always think about is that life moves like the hands of a clock, in a pattern and always repeating the same thematic cycles. I have found this to be so true for myself - it has been chronologically linear but cyclical in so many other ways.

His characters approached the absurdity of existence and an intense desire to experience life in the same breath. They lived and talked as of they were faintly bemused but still flying over all that life threw at them.

Here is an excerpt from ‘The Unbearable Lightness of Being’:
“People usually escape from their troubles into the future; they draw an imaginary line across the path of time, a line beyond which their current troubles will cease to exist. But Tereza saw no such line in her future. Only looking back could bring her consolation. It was Sunday again. They got into the car and drove far beyond the limits of Prague.”

Having told the organisers that my topic would be ‘Works of Milan Kundera’, I discovered that I did not have his entire collection. In those Pre Amazon days, I started scouring all the bookshops in a few cities both personally and through friends. Usually, a lone Kundera would be lying on the shelves and a couple of his works were not easily available. The search however eventually yielded fruit and I managed to get all the missing books in my collection barring one. But in the months after the quiz, I always noticed the same shelves with many Kunderas. Did I play a part in building up that demand? I would fancy so (chuckle).

Kundera lived in Prague and then migrated to Paris. The first one full of both gorgeous architecture and the tragedy of lives and potential snuffed out by a draconian state. And in Paris, one can always sense the existentialism of Sartre, along with a celebration of life through its museums and grand boulevards. Kundera was both - Prague and Paris.

He was also a perennial Nobel contender but somehow did not get it. To me however, though lesser known, he is there with some of the finest: Mahfouz, Barnes, Coetzee or Munro if not Marquez and Camus.
Milan Kundera: April 1, 1929, to 11 July, 2023.

Is it the power of generosity?

 

Narayan Murthy is a true legend, an icon for generations. As a successful middle-class professional in India in the 1980s, it was an audacious step  to take the plunge into entrepreneurship. And in his journey, he set several benchmarks - the first to distribute wealth through stock options to a very large base of employees, the first to insist on the highest corporate governance standards for a fledgeling business, the uncompromising adherence to values and more. In the process, he created the  $70 bn behemoth that gave a fillip to job creation and entrepreneurship in the country and built the reputation of  India flying high as an IT superpower. IT services today are the biggest exports from the country. There are very few companies anywhere that are so innovative, pioneering and that also have transformed an industry and maybe even changed a country.

He belonged to a lower-middle-class family, his father was a schoolteacher with eight children. Now he is worth about $ 4 bn and by all accounts with time, his reputation and respect keep going uph. His daughter is married to the Prime Minister of the UK. It is by all means an abundantly blessed life.

In a recent interview with his son Rohan on TV ( link below), he says his favourite character in Mahabharata is Karna for his generosity. In the story, Karna gives away anything that anybody asks for including his shield that can protect him from any weapon. He is a tragic hero, He is the finest warrior amongst the heroes,  he suffers all along from fate but that does not stop him from being always ready to sacrifice. Murthy also in a very uncharacteristic gesture, did not retain a substantial equity in Infosys as everyone would do, but shared it equitably with his co-founders and employees. Infosys Foundation has carried forward that work too. 

It is quite curious that someone who in the last few decades gave away the most has also got back the most.

https://www.msn.com/mr-in/news/other/exclusive-rohan-murthy-interviews-dad-nr-narayana-murthy-on-starting-up-sacrifices-values/vi-AA1dzxnN

The Monk Who Keeps Inspiring

 

Vivekananda is a universally respected figure, a Hindu monk who transcended boundaries between the West and the East, between Hinduism and other religions. His spirituality, bounded by rationality and yet deeply religious, resonates even today.

Ruth Harris, a Professor of Modern History at Oxford, authored a book ' Guru to the World: The Life and Legacy of Vivekananda last year. I was in a session with her at a literary festival in Jan this year. The hall was packed and every story about Vivekananda was received with a hushed awe by a well-read and cultured audience.

Vivekananda believed in gender equality and the audience was elated to know that he had an openness of a different kind when he said then if there is rebirth, he would like to be reborn as an American woman. He was so impressed by the dignity and hard work of women in the USA. He influenced Freud and Gandhi and his broad thinking married seeming conflicts. He railed against colonialism but did accept the elements of Western civilisation that were inspiring. He was a proud Hindu monk but loved meat. He was aware of the communal tensions but talked of an Indian civilisation based on Hinduism and Islam. He preached the greatness of  Hinduism, especially its philosophical underpinnings, to the public everywhere but considered all religions noble in their own ways. His speech in the Parliament of Religions in Chicago in 1893 continues to stir hearts even now.

On Jesus Christ, he said in Los Angeles in 1990: "And three years of his ministry were like one compressed, concentrated age, which it has taken nineteen hundred years to unfold, and who knows how much longer will it take." 

And on Hinduism, in Chicago in 1893: "I am proud to belong to a religion which has taught the world both tolerance and universal acceptance. We not only believe in universal toleration but we accept all religions as true."

And on the scriptures in Almora in 1898:"We want to lead mankind to the place where there is neither the Vedas nor the Bible nor the Koran; yet this has to be done by harmonising the Vedas, the Bible and the Koran."   

      

Roman Emperors

 

Dictators and emperors have been some of the most cruel and craziest individuals in human history. Modern ones like Idi Amin, Hitler or Pol Pot have got drunk with power and committed terribly heinous acts. In ancient times, some of the Roman generals and emperors were extraordinary in lives of debauchery, violence and plain madness so much so that they defy imagination.

Julius Caesar(pic on top):

He was strictly the first among equals of the First Triumvirate that ruled Rome. Some of his  acts include:

- He was against luxury and he sent inspectors to dining rooms to catch people eating illegal fine dishes.

- His public spectacles involved armies of infantry, cavalry and elephants fighting. The wild beast hunting parties went on for five days.

- His sexual escapades were numerous and had no rules. He was referred to as 'every woman's husband and every man's wife.'

- As a consul, he stole gold and replaced them with bronze.

Nero:

The infamous Nero (pictured above) fiddled while Rome burnt and his acts defy cross all limits.

- At night he would attack people going back from dinner, kill them with a knife and drop them into sewers without any reason whatsoever.

- He took a fancy to a boy Sporus, castrated him and married him. He was passionately fond of his mother Agrippina too. Subsequently, he also tried to murder her by various means and finally sicceeded in doing so.

-He once got disgusted by the old-fashioned buildings in a part of the city and set fire to them which lasted for a week. While the fire was raging, he sang ' The Fall of Troy'.

Caligula:

He was the third Roman emperor, ruled for less than 4 years and was insane, to say the least.

- He made his high officials run on foot beside his chariot for great distances in their togas.

- He had a wild animal retinue and once decide to feed them the meat of prisoners and watched it standing in the colonnade.

-He had sexual relations with hostages, his sisters and wives of all his nobles as he fancied.

- He had a cruel face and even after that, practised in front of a mirror to make his expressions more fearful.

Marcus Aurelius, much later, was the wise and thoughtful one.

 

Budget Journeys

 

Sir C.D. Deshmukh (pic above), the first Indian Governor of the Reserve Bank of India in 1843, was the finance minister from 1950 to 1956 and presented the annual statement of receipts and expenditures of the Union Government, called the budget in 1951-52, effectively the first year after India became a republic.  

A quick comparison of this budget with the latest one shows how much changes in 70 to 75 years.

The revenue receipts in 1951-52(FY 52) were expected to be 370 cr INR and the expenditure 375 cr with a deficit of 5cr.

Cut to estimates for 2023-24 (FY 24). The revenue receipts are INR 26.3 lac cr. A jump of 7108 times. But expenditures have increased even more relatively. The total expenditure budgeted is INR 45 lac cr i.e. 12,000 times.

Inflation and growth - both have played their parts.

Amongst other interesting items, the Government in FY 52 was planning to import 2 million tonnes of wheat from the USA, the balance of payments was positive at 66 cr INR.

The number of taxpayers was however not insubstantial in the context then. Against a population of 45 cr, we had 6 to 7 lac income taxpayers. 

In FY 19, we had 6.7 cr taxpayers (including companies and firms) with about one lac of individuals reporting more than 1 cr income.

The defence used to have a very high proportion of expenditure earlier. Out of 375 cr in FY 52, defence accounted for 180 cr. In FY 24, it is expected to be 5.96 lac cr ( 3311 times of FY 52) out of the total of 45 lac cr.

Propaganda for Kings

 Krishnadevaraya was a powerful king who ruled in Vijaynagara in modern Andhra Pradesh from 1509 to 1529. He ruled over a vast kingdom that included an area encompassing Bengal to Karnataka. 

Allasani Peddana was a great Telugu poet and fancied himself as 'Andhrakavitapitamaha' or the Creator of Telugu poetry. He was in Krishnadevaraya's court. 

We get disturbed by propaganda and exaggerated hero worship when we see it with political leaders. In te age of democracy and equality it seems so baffling. We treat mere men as Gods. This probably has a genesis in the way in a feudal society we treated our kings. They were arbiters of justice, commanders of the army, divine inheritors who lived in the fanciest of palaces. They also had poets eulogising them to the skies.

Peddana's classic 'The Story of Manu' begins with a encomiums to the glory and prowess of the king. Some of it will embarrass even our most praise-hungry modern leaders.

" For one rich in such qualities,

for an expert rider adept at handling any sort of horse,

for one who is quiet at heart,

whose brilliant fame turned all space white,

whose sword is like a snake filling its belly with the life breaths

of enemies trembling the darkness caused by dust

kicked up by his horses' hooves in one continuous charge,

for Karma reborn, a paragon of the art of giving,

for one who is loyal to good people,

for the lover of lady poetry,

for one whose fame rolls like waves to the end of space,

makes the sun redundant,

who captured the son of the Kalinga king 

in less than half a minute,

whose mind, with all its thoughts and words, rests at the feet

of Lord Venkatesvara, the ultimate source of kindness."   

Art and Human Beings

 

Art plays an important role in modern human societies. Mona Lisa's face may be amongst the most recognised faces in the world. The Dancing Girl of Mohenjo Daro ( pic above) is in one small piece brings a vivid representation of that civilisation for us. The Nataraja is the iconic distillation of the glory of Southern India.

The cave paintings in France and Spain (image below) show us how evolved humans were in art even in the ice age. Initially, the people refused to accept that it could be from that era. But as it was proved that the paintings of horses, bison and mammoths were done by the primitive people it became clear that even in basic, pre-historic conditions art came naturally to humans and it may have allowed them to connect to a superior state of being as it does now.

Through art, we can fuse reality and imagination in a way that can outlast us. It connects us to a cosmic sense of existence that makes our mundane lives more acceptable.

Modern education in India with its emphasis on STEM, science-based disciplines and almost complete discarding of art from the curricula, and including literature too; produces graduates bereft of a sense of grandeur and universal spirit. It does not help that the broader society at best engages with commercial movies as the highest form of art. There are hardly any patrons or even artists or literary figures that can infuse the spirit of art in society. All this adds to a mechanistic, transactional life. Time we addressed this.

China and India - Two tales

 China and India are two veritable giants in the world. Long history, ancient civilisations. Not to forget they are neighbours who are into skirmishes off and on. They fought a war in 1962. Another one was recently in 2020. China banned the last Indian reporter from being in the country this week. There is always an undercurrent of hostility between these two nations.

Two incidents are amongst the most defining in their history.

The first one is a glorious, inspiring one. In the 7th century, under the Tang dynasty, China had postal systems, road networks and a flourishing open culture. Since that time, Xuanzang is one of the most respected figures in Chinese history. In 629 AD, he crossed the Himalayas into India to learn more about Buddhism. He spent seventeen years travelling to Peshwar, Patna, Kanchi, Bodh Gaya, Bengal, Malwa and Gujarat amongst other places. He spent two years in monasteries in Kashmir trying to understand Buddhist philosophies. He also spent two years studying at the University in Nalanda.  Sixteen years after he had left, in 645 AD, he went back to China laden with books, statues and other cultural artefacts. He was considered wise and evolved. When he went back, he was given a rapturous welcome by the people and the emperor asked him to be his Prime Minister. He decided to continue as a monk. His influence triggered a great intermingling of Indian, Buddhist and Chinese cultures with hundreds of monks travelling across these countries. China became a centre of Buddhism too with Indian influences and two great civilisations drew from each other.

Another significant interaction between India and China was around opium almost 1000 years later.  East India Company had established itself in India in 1757 and over time it started smuggling opium from Bengal into China. This had its own bad effects. Opium addiction had grown tremendously in the population. Estimates put the number of addicts at 12 million and the annual trade of opium at 30,000 chests of 170 pounds each. 

To curb this menace, the emperor appointed a commissioner Lin Zexu. In 1839, he set about his task vigorously, arresting traders, seizing almost 1 million kilograms of opium and destroying it. The British then decided to attack the Chinese forces with an army from India consisting mostly of Indian sepoys. Eventually, the Chinese lost, conceding several important concessions including rights to Hong Kong. This has been always a sore wound in the Chinese mind.

Thus Buddhism and opium, both from India, in fact from the Eastern part of India, played a significant role in Chinese history and the relationship between these giants. 

Another Life

 More than seven years and the bug to reflect and write bites me again. A new world and it is a new world every five years. Post Covid, work from home has been normalised, more nationalist and right-wing politics, the rising influence of apps and the web and the emerging possibilities and threats of AI. China is clearly the second pole, climate change and decarbonisation are getting centre stage and in India a rising tide of Hinduisation of the society. A lot to chew on, amid this rapid pace of change in the world.

The Invasion of MOOCs

As it has happened in a succession of industries like music, travel and retailing; the internet is going to  disrupt the higher education market forever. The global market for higher education is estimated at $300 billion with 80 million students and around 3.5 million teaching and support staff. In the words of Clayton Christenssen, this market is  ‘ripe for a disruption’.  

My take in the link: http://www.iamwire.com/2013/10/technology-led-disruption-happen-higher-education/20779

The Twenty-first Century Workplace

The global workplace is changing fast. The new generation is becoming more progressive,more linked and more demanding with a radical change in priorities.What should the organisations strive for - my take in the blog for Great Place To Work® Institute - a global research and consulting firm. 




http://greatnessdiaries.com/2014/11/05/salil-k-sahu-managing-director-home-store-india/

Culture for Startups

In times of  stability, culture plays a vital role in the success of organizations. Most management studies have found ‘Culture’ to be amongst the four most important factors for success. Peter Drucker once said “Culture trumps strategy for breakfast.”Culture can make or mar startups but its importance is not adequately appreciated. 

Here is a link to an article I wrote on iamwire:http://www.iamwire.com/2013/08/leveraging-invisible-warrior/

Pricing in the Internet Era

Owing to the inherent low loyalty on the web, the ecom players are going to face a difficult battle amongst themselves on pricing. The brick and mortars of course face an existential battle over prices.Web commerce has disrupted pricing models - apps and price comparison sites ensure that how you price has become even more important. 

Here is a link to my article on iamwire on The Power of Pricing: http://www.iamwire.com/2013/07/the-all-powerful-pricing/

Micro Trends in the Indian Market

The markets are changing constantly and organisations can be on top only if they start working when the trends are just beginning - the article by me on iamwire looks at understanding the importance of trends early enough.

These embryonic trends start deep and create the structural disruptions that later end up as gigantic changes. For some these mega trends come as shocks that overturns their business models but it need not be so, if one starts identifying and working on the micro trends early in the cycle. My take in the link: 

                                                    http://www.iamwire.com/2013/05/of-markets-and-trends-start-early/

Seize the online Home Decor Market

The fragmented and unorganized Indian home décor market is rapidly becoming organized as consumers turn to chain stores and the web for purchases. The online industry has the power of the net to reach consumers throughout the country while eliminating the high operational costs of physical stores.
Here is a link for my article on the possible strategy for online Home Decor in India http://www.iamwire.com/2013/04/decoding-the-online-home-decor-market/

The perils for ecommerce in India

The ecommerce industry is seeing a repeat of the dynamics of the brick and mortar retail in India.in a fiercely competitive market, the e-commerce businesses will need to take a few lessons from the experience of offline retail in the last decade. Many lessons are inherent to a new industry but some of them are unique to the Indian market. They can ignore them only at their own peril.

Here is a link to my recent article in iamwire,a premier site for e commerce in India, which talks about what the industry can learn from offline retail.

  http://www.iamwire.com/2013/03/can-e-commerce-evade-the-hurdles-that-derailed-brick-and-mortar-retail/