Inc for All

This book has good timing,coming as it does when corporate India is upset that social equity is taking centrestage and economic growth is being made to sit on the sidelines for a bit. Corporate Indias unquestioning view is that its the economy,stupid,and its demand that society get enlightened so as not to get in the way of the economy is what Maira discusses in this book. But is a book of thought and not of action prescriptions much use? As Maira warns,discussing the popular just do it mindset,bold fixes often backfire because the systemic connections among the variety of interacting forces is not understood. He says that our world has a bias against reflection and against posing questions for which there are no easy answers because they waste time8230;. And he is right too in his exhortation that corporates need to see themselves as an integral part of society and need to fulfil broader social obligations. The tone of the book is far from the strident and shrill one that TV nowadays dishes out routinely,in the name of discussion. It is gentle,nudging,a bit rambling. It is not even like a satsang or a wide-eyed walk in the woods. It is more like a visit to your favourite schoolteacher,long retired,who gently reminds you that there is more to life and to you than professional success and family achievements.

But I do have a quarrel with this book. A collection of columns put together to make a book somehow doesnt have the same depth and impact as the real thing even if the columns are individual gems strung together with thoughtfully custom-built bridge essays. The reader loses out on an enriching journey of a gradually increasing understanding of the subject. On such a complex topic,there is a need to read something that starts at Point A and travels in a specific direction to arrive at Point B,which offers a better vantage point and hence a better view of whatever the book is about. This book suffers from an added burden because of its very evocative and definitive title,Transforming Capitalism: Improving the World for Everyone. The reader can be forgiven the hope and expectation that each chapter would build on the previous one and at the end a sharper understanding of issues would emerge. Moreover,if the original articles were written for diverse publications meant for different audiences,and triggered in response to different events,the logic of the journey is harder to decipher. While reading,one often wonders havent we been here before,and is this a detour or has the road turned? The book also crisscrosses altitudes and themes in a somewhat bewildering way. It contains very basic discussions like the one on what civil society is and well-synthesised pieces around land acquisition and TRIPS as well as sharp and thought-provoking commentaries on how business is responding to the challenges of affirmative action and inclusion; and there are some small pieces that perhaps should have been broken up and Twitter-ised rather than been allowed to be used as filler material for more weighty pieces.

Having vented disappointment at what may have been solved with a lot more skilful editing,now to turn to the effect that the book has on the reader. This reviewer first thought that perhaps someone far better informed about isms and ideologies would do greater justice to this book. But after reading it,it is clear that this book is written for the mainstream majority of people in the world of business. It forces such a reader,usually with tunnel vision and a belief that the business of business is only business,into uneasiness that there are other equally,if not more,valid points of view out there. A piece that is hard-hitting and must be part of compulsory reading in all business schools,especially the elite ones,is the one called Changing mindsets for inclusive growth. Maira challenges all of us to rethink our positions on the nine nostrums,as he calls them,that could retard inclusive growth. Some of them are: leave it to the private sector if you want public services to improve,uneducated people cannot make good decisions and either you are with us or you are against us. Maira has long been an evangelist for dialogue between all our different fragments of society,and in this book too he urges that: India must have best in the world capabilities for dialogue among different stakeholders,and calls it an appropriate technology for democratic Indias progress. But for concrete ideas or distilled experiential wisdom on how to do this,we will have to wait for the sequel to this book.

Dil mange more,Mr Maira. We need you to take all these thoughts to the next level of depth and,no,not actionability,but at least a better understanding of what the solution spaces can be. And to map the journey on how exactly we can collectively agree on the philosophy to guide the economy which ,as you say,has to be uniquely Indian and evolved by Indian thought leaders.