A topic far removed from the current Europe and US crisis; a reprieve. A stray thought which continues to haunt – why is it taking Ratan Tata so long to find a successor? And why is it that India cannot create leaders like Steve Jobs? This thought is someway interlinked to the current world economic crisis as in, the entire mess which we are in today is all due to poor governance. Be it the USA or Europe, some decisions have gone wrong and that has led to this spiraling crisis. And in India, we currently have a lack of leadership or governance in all facets – be it political or economical.
So where have all the leaders gone? Do we have a crisis of leadership at hand? We do not know for sure where the leaders have gone but what is certain is that we do have a crisis of leadership at hand. Not just at the political level but also in India Inc. It is well known all over the globe about how we Indians are fastidious about education. Right from the domestic help at home to the owner of a conglomerate, all know that education is empowerment and all try and ensure that the child gets education, at least. Thus when such is the push towards education, why is it that our system is not able to generate a Steve Jobs or Bill Gates or Mark Zuckerberg? Children while penning essays about ‘inspirational leaders’ might quote a Indira Nooyi or Vikram Pandit. Both of these were educated in India but could become global leaders because they were in USA. It is as simple as that. Even Kalpana Chawla became a household name because she was an astronaut in USA; had she been only in India, she might never have got off earth!
First about education. There are many free thinkers who feel that education in India, which is more about mugging up rather than conceptual clarity, kills all innovation. Infact many complain that as students, one is not allowed to be creative. Today, children are not allowed to solve a simple Math problem using their creativity; they have to necessarily follow the method given by the teacher. So when creativity is killed at such an early stage and at such simple levels, little wonder schools do not produce any innovators today! The famed movie, 3 Idiots talked about the same. And yes, there is immense talent in India. National Innovation Foundation has stated that there are over 100,000 outstanding innovations that have come from school dropouts and poor people from rural India. And NIF has managed to get some products commercially manufactured and some exported. But millions of ideas and innovators continue waiting for assistance in terms of funds, technical and design support.
A major shakeup in terms of quality of education is desperately needed in India. Our country has probably got the highest number of MBAs, yet, they cannot even think half as innovatively. So are we churning out just degrees with no substance?
And global leadership? Innovation is just not given its right due. You have an idea and toil years to get it going, spending all your life time savings – what is the guarantee that a patent will protect it from being copied immediately? And before getting to the patent part, are such ideas given any support at all? If Steve Jobs was an Indian and he had come up with a product like Apple in India, you think it could have become a global brand like the way it is today? No way!
Our desi companies are happy to export but money is not spent in developing a global identity. Why? Probably because we simply cannot afford it or probably because a ‘Made in India’ continues to attract condescending attention from the world consumers. Also, a pattern has been created wherein the emerging economies are becoming manufacturing hubs, while USA conserves its energy and resources in building sustainable, global brands. Thus emerging economies continue to remain ‘factories’ which is why we are probably driven more by the need to grow economically than concentrate on developing global brands.
It is true that a genius is born once in a lifetime and such a genius cannot be shackled by education. And at the same time, it is also equally true that education is a must. Or else Dhirubhai and Bill Gates would not have educated their own children. But India surely needs another Dhirubhai or Steve Jobs!
By Ruma Dubey
No comments:
Post a Comment