Narendra Modi came to the SRCC campus in Delhi as the CEO of Gujarat Inc, ostensibly looking at India Corp as a profitable takeover proposition. He estimates that this corporate giant has good fundamentals, young and able employees, but who are woefully mismanaged. Modi, the shrewd Gujarati entrepreneur, may have made his assessment right. He may or may not have been conversant with corporate social responsibility, but he did not show it nor said a word on this. Which, of course, fits well with his established image. Not given to liberal arts, Modi’s managerial outlook is on familiar lines—bracketed to the bottom line and building the brand. The question is, whether we, as a nation, are in such straits as to trade in our enduring old societal mores, for a brand image that is transient.
R Narayanan, Ghaziabad