I had completely under-estimated Indian entrepreneurship. Indian organisations have already opened up medical colleges in Nepal and management institutes in Dubai. They obviously had good astrologers for consultants. They knew that the UPA government bored with nothing to do (upgrading primary schools or fast-forwarding the judicial process being too lowly tasks for them) would announce the great reservations mela. Having anticipated this, our entrepreneurs have already moved. Now all that they need to do is expand and grow. Even the much-persecuted (uniformly and impartially by the NDA and the UPA) IIM directors must have been prescient. Hence their desire to expand to Singapore and so on!

On a different and serious note, I believe that corporate India has another business opportunity. In a country where there are tens of millions (maybe hundreds of millions depending on which babu you ask) of unemployed, reserving jobs either in the public or the private sector will achieve very little. If we tap into the entrepreneurial skills of our people who revel in self-employment (we are a nation of hawkers and of farmers, both classic self-employed categories) we can create an explosion of productive capacity. Corporate India should introduce an affirmative action programme in the management of its vendors, suppliers, dealers and distributors. This programme should target entrepreneurs and self-employed from underprivileged backgrounds (with a catholic definition of the term “underprivileged”). These persons will be role models and will in turn create wealth and more jobs. These individuals will not have access to unionised sinecures, but will need to compete against similar persons and deliver to demanding standards. My friend Vaidyanathan from IIM Bangalore says that the need of the hour is the “Vaishya-isation” of all of India’s castes. Let’s go for it. From India Inc’s perspective, a self-imposed, self-regulated measure is likely to deliver genuine results, that is, uplift the needy and deserving. A cabinet or parliamentary decree will result in one more law that the corrupt will sidestep and which, while enriching numerous government inspectors, will leave India’s poor (of all castes) pretty much where they are.

... contd.