Business sense

With the CII task force presenting its report on quotas in the private sector and general official feelers being given out that legislating for reservations in industry is not an active option, there’s no reason for the ill-tempered and ill-informed quarrel about “social responsibility versus professional competence” to continue. Particularly because even the most aggressive proponents of private sector quotas should recognise that industry has been “sensitised”. If this group’s argument before was that corporates were blissfully unmindful of social reality and, unwittingly or otherwise, were perpetuating social privileges, post the CII report the verdict must be that industry has laid out a roadmap for “inclusiveness”. Anyone in doubt should read the analysis by J.J. Irani — chairperson of the CII task force — that we carry on the op-ed page.

Instead of putting aside professional jobs for specific castes, the task force argues for financing the training of students from disadvantaged social groups to better equip them for demanding white-collar employment. Larger involvement of corporates in primary education, something Rajasthan is already seeing, is another substantive and easily implementable suggestion. The most commendable however is the recommendation that industry mentor entrepreneurs from social groups for whom quotas have been demanded.

There’s virtually no recognition among aggressive quota pushers that corporate jobs constitute a minuscule proportion of total employment. That given labour laws that ban hire and fire and given the absence of a manufacturing renaissance as China has seen, industrial employment can’t go up. That, even if these things change — a big if — entrepreneurship as a means to social uplift is worth pursuing. So-called social justice champions have never appreciated how dynamic Indian entrepreneurship is and that this dynamism is best seen in small businesses that somehow survive despite all odds. The sad tale of graduates from second rate universities looking for grade four jobs in any organisation would have not played out on as large a scale as it does had small entrepreneurs been in policy focus. If industry is going to find and nurture businessmen among some castes, our argument would be to broaden that approach to all communities. India can do with thousands more entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs never have much time for social engineering.