Recently the government tried to
see that the corporate spend some money (atleast marginal) on CSR. It is not
too much to ask. Barring some corporates and establishments there is not much
concern for common people or degrading environment. Indeed Indian corporates
are notorious for their lack of giving back to the society. We have to look
towards the West for examples. Indeed
the business of business is business but then as one earns more it is expected
that you give some, you contribute for cause and concerns that plagues this
rather impoverished society.
It is unfortunate that the
corporate too fall into neo-brahminical framework and fails to take
responsibility. Indeed they tend to be exploitative of not only the workers but
the nature; they bring in the worst kind of business ethics (ofcourse there are
exceptions…we here are discussing majority).
The soul seems to be coming from the ‘traditional shops’ that tend to
treat workers are slaves. I was at the famous shops in paratta wali gali the other day. It is the worst that has to offer.
Unhygienic surrounding, exploited waiters and workers in dirty cloths, wholly
unhealthy food. It is a sad sight. The saddest part is that these don’t require
much expense, indeed empathy is least costly. It needs attitudinal change,
unfortunately though the neo-brahminical reference adding to profit driven
nature of professionalism makes it difficult. They have Nehru’s picture of him
eating in the shop. Well the historians will point to many mistakes of Nehru,
eating at Paratta wali gali is one. Shops/Business
establishments like these are existing for ages (prachin as they claim) in most cases are not because of any unique
expertise, just that during those days majority of people were not in a
position to open establishments/hotels, only miniscule section were allowed. It
is interesting to note that from this miniscule section we have this tradition
of “pure vegetarian” breed. I never could understand the difference between
“pure vegetarian” and “vegetarian”. The difference I realize is where the
mediocrity peeps in as tradition. This is the tradition that the Corporate has
acquired as its soul.
With rare exceptions the
traditional businesses meet the modern professionalism on these parameters. The
soul is exploitative and lacks empathy. It seems to conduct business as
entitlement. While half of children in this country die of malnutrition the traditional
elite still encourage wonderful concept of pouring milk/butter on statues! I
cannot blame the common people, these rituals and believes that supports were
created by the traditional elites. It needs one to be uniquely cruel to be part
of this (probably why, disgusting American profligacy is emulated and
celebrated, the spin is liberal values). This is a minor example from a
framework that worked to create exclusivity and traditional claims, creating an
amazingly mediocre society that thrived on disconnecting itself from
existential problems of the people. Consider that Mundaka Upanishad was trying to bring transient nature of life
(which is true) but in the process unfortunately classified knowledge of
empirical world as lower knowledge –apara vidya, this idea when met the
mediocre nature of society had regrettable outcome. For centuries this became
basis for discourse, attitude, therefore inaction, as society slipped into
morass.
This then is how we should
understand the aspirational soul of Indian corporate. Empathy can only come
when the achievement is not because of privilege but talent. Talent here needs to
emerge from concern, that is the nucleus of innovation. That really is
competence.
It is indeed matter of shame
that India lacks majorly on investment in R&D. The lack of concern for
innovation is therefore clearly a neo-brahminical framework. Further it also
shows lack of commitment on the part of the policy makers to encourage
originality in solving unique problems facing the country (wonder why the top
policy makers had their training in World Bank!!). Though one of the largest
economy (that clearly is because of population) India’s investment in R&D
is only 1.03% of GDP, this has a strong bearing on the competitiveness. As expected, in the ranking of competitiveness
India ranked 49th out of 130 countries. China’s rank on this index is 30th
(improved from 34th rank in 2007-08), whereas India slipped to the
present position from 48th rank in 2007-08. Also note India’s
share of total global R&D spending is 3.7% while China’s is 17.9 (Japan
12.4).
Corporate R&D is the driver
of R&D investment and is the incubation point for innovations. But almost
75% of R&D investment in India comes from government, while the industry
accounts for only about 23%. In countries like Japan and S.Korea it is other
way round –75% is contributed by corporates. It need indeed be noted that even
emerging economies like Brazil has about 40% contribution from corporate. Not
surprisingly according to patents granted India’s position is very weak in
comparison with other emerging economies of Asian origin e.g. Taiwan, Korea,
and China. India stood at 39th rank in the world as far as the value
of high tech exports is concerned. The US is on top of the world followed by
China at number two and Germany at number three. But when high tech exports are
calculated as proportion of the total manufacturing export, India has even
lower rank at number 54.
Considering above fact isn’t it
right to say that India is already in a junk status thanks to its incompetent
Corporates? We are, or is it we were, in the reckoning because of large
population that is a potential consumer/customer for imported goods/technology,
in effect making other economies gain. We get the crumbs, large crumbs gives us
large business and illusion of grandeur. Secondly, the land mass has much value
(indeed more than humans) the rich natural resources are exploited to fill up
the coffer, most millionaires and billionaires are from this section. Thus some
people make huge amount of money exploiting natural resources while smarter
people in Japan and Korea make value out of these raw materials –the difference
between feudal and equitable society, between entitlement and empathy. As
innovation is connected to people the concerns get translated into CSR related
activities. As exploiting natural resources and accessing is part of good
fortune, corruption and nepotism, therefore huge gifts to temples (like say, Bellary
brothers), propitiating, thus crudeness and apathy. The neo-brahminical
reference celebrates crony capitalism as favorable luck that surely is outcome
of past karma, therefore ordained,
therefore not much of a concern and should be seen as normal part of social
transactions.
