Ethnicity and Good Governance

 There is a lot of speculation about the ethnic Indian who is likely to follow in Boris Johnson's steps. In my own opinion, that hardly matters. What matters is how well he or she will govern the U.K.

We have had many Chief Ministers, usually local stock, who have governed various states. The one who made a visible difference in Andhra Pradesh where I grew up, was Chandrababu Naidu. He may have lost his appeal today, but he was the first to introduce Powerpoint presentations-in government! He is also said to have made one to the ISB founders to get them to set up shop in Hyderabad.

He is single-handedly responsible for getting the IT giants into A.P. - not just Indian giants, but all the global ones. That is not a  mean achievement, given Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and others were probably contenders at the time.

Good roads that are not an eyesore can be a very visible symbol of good governance. Gadkari reportedly got 50 flyovers constructed in Mumbai in a few years of ONE term, whereas we struggle to build one in that time elsewhere!

Sreedharan was allowed by powers that be to do good, and so was Verghese Kurien given a free hand. Maybe that is a secret sauce- a free hand given to capable people! 

Thought Leaders

 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?