These are few and far between. In any field. This is ironic, since as a species, humans are supposed to be thinkers of a higher order than other animals/species. Maybe the way we have built society, politics, governance, bureaucracy, education etc. has something to do with it. Thinking skills are hardly rewarded anywhere, from education to corporate work cultures, despite the usual lip service to 'thinking outside the box.'
But there have been a few souls that I can think of in India, who contributed immensely to our country's progress, through thinking big, fresh and also helping implement those thoughts-at least one of these two.
Verghese Kurien, through spearheading the White Revolution, ensured availability of milk, to a population that was malnourished and deprived of this basic nutrition-especially children. Farmers' interests were also protected, because it was done through cooperatives.
Sreedharan, on the other hand, implemented Metro railway and other projects successfully, and brought to urban commuters a safe and reliable mode of transport. The founder of Nirma showed us the power of advertising and pricing, albeit with help from an ad agency that created the best-selling campaign. Similarly, Amitabh Kant spearheaded advertising campaigns for Brand India and Brand Kerala with the Incredible India and God's Own Country campaigns.
The Tatas set up institutes of learning in diverse fields such as Science and Social sciences, when none existed-at least not of high quality.
ISRO did some good things.
Manmohan Singh and Narasimha Rao at the centre, and Chandrababu Naidu in his stint as Chief Minister, brought in a vision of something drastically different from the plodding on governance and licensing. Maybe the Healthcare crisis brought on by COVID 19 will spur something in the healthcare sector? Maybe we can become vaccine suppliers to the world, at the very least?
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