Each time a year or a decade draws to a close, hacks and pundits shamelessly use words like tumultuous, turbulent, momentous and what not. Events that would not even find a footnote in history become momentous occasions that would transform everything. For a relatively new democratic nation state like India, every decade since the 1950s has been a defining one. The 1950s saw Nehru disarmingly wrap India Inc. around his web of socialist ideals while Dr. Ambedkar fought a heroic battle against revisionists to reform the Hindu Civil Code. The 1960s saw the dismal humiliation of India by China, the last famine that India witnessed and the beginning of the destruction of the Congress monopoly. The 1970s saw India Inc. being smothered by crony socialism even as Indira Gandhi and Jaiprakash Narayan fought an epic battle that nobody won. The 1980s saw India Inc. get just a whiff of freedom from stifling controls and Indian cricket finally broke free of its British Imperial legacy even as the soul of the nation fought what then seemed like a losing war against secessionism and insurgency. The 1990s saw economic opportunities multiply even as multiple and multiplying sectarian and secessionist violence of the most brutal kind struck blow after blow against the very Idea of India.
How would you sum up and characterise the post Y2K decade ?(Yes, do you now recall how hacks and pundits were hell bent on categorising Y2K as something more apocalyptic than the most terrible visions of Nostradamus? And yes, how many of you do actually remember the Y2K frenzy?)
Being a hack and also having no shame in proclaiming myself as a self proclaimed pundit (as most fellow Indians do!), I would say this decade going by saw three things: the rise and rise of brazen crony capitalism (replacing the crony socialism) of the 1970s and 1980s and the simultaneous rise and rise of a wave against pathetic governance masquerading as populism; ethnic assertiveness or plain simple goondaism. Both are waging an epic battle; the first to enable some elements of India Inc. to take India back to some kind of paternalistic and pseudo-democratic corporate feudalism and the second to take India back to plain simple feudalism. Or not. The battles are being waged in earnest and often viciously; but I doubt if even Bejan Daruwala, hustling his annual dose of narcissism for Rs.295 a shot, can actually say who will win the war.
Back in 2001, India Inc. and middle class India were shaken by the Ketan Parekh scam; almost 10 years after SEBI was formed to prevent such scams and the venerable UTI almost collapsed because it invested your and my money in exorbitantly overpriced equities prompted by God knows who. Of course, please don’t forget the Tehelka scam the same year. The subsequent years saw scam after scam – small and big; the first real telecom scam and the petroleum pump scam to name just two. After 2004, when the aam aadmi UPA government under the unquestionably honest Dr. Manmohan Singh came to power, India witnessed a bizarre situation, where genuine pro poor schemes and plans marched in tandem with gargantuan scams. One of the biggest scams, though hardly talked about now, is the manner in which the government was enriching corporate India at the expense of poor farmers through that fancy thing called Special Economic Zone (SEZ). And nothing seems to have changed even as the decade comes to a close.
How would you sum up and characterise the post Y2K decade ?(Yes, do you now recall how hacks and pundits were hell bent on categorising Y2K as something more apocalyptic than the most terrible visions of Nostradamus? And yes, how many of you do actually remember the Y2K frenzy?)
Being a hack and also having no shame in proclaiming myself as a self proclaimed pundit (as most fellow Indians do!), I would say this decade going by saw three things: the rise and rise of brazen crony capitalism (replacing the crony socialism) of the 1970s and 1980s and the simultaneous rise and rise of a wave against pathetic governance masquerading as populism; ethnic assertiveness or plain simple goondaism. Both are waging an epic battle; the first to enable some elements of India Inc. to take India back to some kind of paternalistic and pseudo-democratic corporate feudalism and the second to take India back to plain simple feudalism. Or not. The battles are being waged in earnest and often viciously; but I doubt if even Bejan Daruwala, hustling his annual dose of narcissism for Rs.295 a shot, can actually say who will win the war.
Back in 2001, India Inc. and middle class India were shaken by the Ketan Parekh scam; almost 10 years after SEBI was formed to prevent such scams and the venerable UTI almost collapsed because it invested your and my money in exorbitantly overpriced equities prompted by God knows who. Of course, please don’t forget the Tehelka scam the same year. The subsequent years saw scam after scam – small and big; the first real telecom scam and the petroleum pump scam to name just two. After 2004, when the aam aadmi UPA government under the unquestionably honest Dr. Manmohan Singh came to power, India witnessed a bizarre situation, where genuine pro poor schemes and plans marched in tandem with gargantuan scams. One of the biggest scams, though hardly talked about now, is the manner in which the government was enriching corporate India at the expense of poor farmers through that fancy thing called Special Economic Zone (SEZ). And nothing seems to have changed even as the decade comes to a close.
Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri
and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).
For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri
and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).
For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles
2012 : DNA National B-School Survey 2012
Ranked 1st in International Exposure (ahead of all the IIMs)
Ranked 6th Overall
Zee Business Best B-School Survey 2012
Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri’s Session at IMA Indore
IIPM IN FINANCIAL TIMES, UK. FEATURE OF THE WEEK
IIPM strong hold on Placement : 10000 Students Placed in last 5 year
IIPM’s Management Consulting Arm-Planman Consulting
Professor Arindam Chaudhuri – A Man For The Society….
IIPM: Indian Institute of Planning and Management
IIPM makes business education truly global
Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri-The New Age Woman
IIPM B-School Facebook Page
IIPM Global Exposure
IIPM Best B School India
IIPM B-School Detail
IIPM Links
IIPM : The B-School with a Human Face
IIPM – FLP (Flexi Learning Program)
