A Free Mind Spurs Talent

Take a look at the papers and it's pretty hard to miss- slowly but surely, Indians are beginning to take over the reins of global capitalism. Sounds exaggerated? One glance at the latest headlines across the global corporate landscape, and you might just agree. Pepsico, Citibank, Unilever and now Deutschebank- when it comes to big business, it's hard to get any bigger than the names just gone by, And what's the one common thread running through them all?...yes, you guessed it-all of them have our very own desi management gurus at the top. What's more, each one of them has received the better part of his/her education in India itself-yeah the very same system that we routinely like to pass off as the next worst thing to the Indian football team...So what has changed? Have we suddenly become brighter as a nation?..or have all those years of religiously gulping down Dabur Chwanparash finally begun to pay off?

Well, the answer may just lie in casting a closer look inwards, instead of looking around everywhere else. Just think about it, there must be something we are doing right. After all, compared to the Chinese, who seem to be doing better on just about every other front, there is surprisingly little representation of our eastern neighbours when it comes to donning the mantle at leading global MNCs...could this be yet another example of that age-old axiom coming back with a vengeance- that while authoritarian regimes may and often do give rise to a more efficient big picture, at an individual level, there is nothing like a free and open society to encourage and spur innovation. Could this be the reason why we are yet to see a Chinese L N Mittal, their version of the Ambanis or even a single name in the global top ten rich lists that routinely find their way into some magazine or the other? 

With the 21st century poised to emerge as a battle of the two Asian giants, it’s a question that might just be worth exploring in greater detail.