The book analyses causes of bottlenecks in implementation of policies and projects; argues that good governance of a country as diverse as India should be based on sound systems of cooperation
(L-R) Dr PD Jose, Faculty member, Corporate Strategy & Policy, IIM Bangalore; Anand Sudarshan, Co-Chairman, FICCI Karnataka State Council; B. Muthuraman, former CEO of TATA Steel and former President of CII and Arun Maira, author of ‘An Upstart in Government: Journeys of Change and Learning’, share the stage during the book launch at IIMB on September 23, 2015.
Arun Maira, former member, Planning Commission of India, argues that the country needs to convert contentions between stakeholders into collaboration to produce results during a discussion on his book at IIMB.
SEPTEMBER 23, 2015: The Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIMB) and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), along with Rupa Publications, hosted the launch of Mr Arun Maira’s book, ‘An Upstart in Government: Journeys of Change and Learning’, on Wednesday, September 23, 2015, at the IIMB auditorium.
Welcoming the audience, mainly comprising students from IIMB, Dr P D Jose, faculty member, Corporate Strategy & Policy, spoke of his association with Mr Maira, former member, Planning Commission of India, and quoted anecdotes from the book to emphasise that development came from building collaborative systems. “Mr Maira’s book analyses the reasons why policies stall and fail in India; for a country as diverse and complex as India, development will come from building strong networks of collaborative action, rather than hierarchies and bureaucracies,” he said.
In his opening remarks, Mr Anand Sudarshan, Co-Chairman, FICCI Karnataka State Council, said the book reflected Mr Maira’s vast experience of having worked in India and overseas as well as in the Government sector. “The book is unique as it is reflective rather than prescriptive - the book makes the reader reflect deeply. The anchor points from which these reflections will start will be yours, but the sheer panorama of reflection will get influenced by what you will read from the book…prescriptions do not allow you to do that”, he added.
In his response to the remarks, the author dwelt on his tenure at the Planning Commission and peppered his narrative with gentle humour. “I received many complaints from people in industry and civil society as things were not improving fast enough in the country and they categorically told me not to write another plan. ‘Just make things happen’, they said,” he exclaimed.
Mr Maira then pointed out that all of us need to ask questions, get to the root cause of things not moving fast enough, identify what is acting as the hindrance to India’s progress and produce the outcome that we want in our country. “India has millions of bottlenecks. There are various instances when policies are not formed or not implemented; when projects remain incomplete and investment/funds are stuck. We need to establish why these bottlenecks exist. Often, this is due to contentions between different stakeholders, lack of coordination and confusion. We need to convert these contentions into more collaboration so that together we can produce the results that we all will benefit from”.
“Can we, as a county, learn to cooperate and learn to coordinate?” he probed. “We need to adopt principles and methods to turn contentions into collaboration and confusion into coordination, so that noble intensions can be converted through implementation into desired outcomes. In this endeavour to produce results, we can learn from other countries like Germany, Sweden, Japan, Brazil and the like, who found ways for stakeholders to work together,” he explained.
The author concluded by saying: “Can we help the system to work, with people taking charge of their parts of the system and collaborating with others who also have responsibility? That’s what the book is about. I believe the use of such methods can transform the lives of many people”.
The chief guest, who released the book earlier in the evening, Mr B. Muthuraman, former CEO of TATA Steel, former President of CII and a Padma Bhushan awardee, shared his thoughts on the book and the author. “The contents of the book are a reflection of the character of the author himself. The book tells us that the author is an India lover; it reveals his love for the House of Tata from where he has imbibed many business principles and it talks about his passion for creating a shared vision,” he said.
Dr P D Jose remarked that Arun Maira had the perfect “outsider-insider” view of Government. “One of the highlights of the book is Mr Maira’s depiction of the potential and frailties of our system, about a bureaucracy which can drive changes, but is rule-bound.” The country, said Dr Jose, needed to find innovative solutions as it was hamstrung by rules and regulations and had a legacy that often prevented it from moving forward. The key lessons from the book, he continued, were that the best intended actions were often hamstrung by political expediencies, so one did need to adopt a collaborative approach to achieve efficiency, productivity and so on. “There is only one way to progress and that is through collaboration,” he added.
The event wrapped up with a Q&A session, which was informative. The author pointed out that individuals should take initiative, move forward and inspire others to do the same. “Thus, we can all become part of the solution. If people become leaders in their own sphere-we can change the country,” he said. Fielding a question from a student, Mr Maira said the only asset in any enterprise whose value appreciates with time was human capital, hence conditions had to be created to nurture human beings.
About the author: Currently the Chancellor of the Central University of Himachal Pradesh, Mr Arun Maira was a Member of the Planning Commission of India for five years till June 2014. In his career spanning five decades, Mr Maira has led several organisations such as the Tata Group. He also served as Chairman, Boston Consulting Group, India, for eight years till 2008. His overseas professional stint includes working for Arthur D. Little in the US, where he advised several companies on how to handle transformation change. He has held other leadership positions and is on the board of many companies. He has also been involved with several government committees and organisations.
The book analyses causes of bottlenecks in implementation of policies and projects; argues that good governance of a country as diverse as India should be based on sound systems of cooperation
(L-R) Dr PD Jose, Faculty member, Corporate Strategy & Policy, IIM Bangalore; Anand Sudarshan, Co-Chairman, FICCI Karnataka State Council; B. Muthuraman, former CEO of TATA Steel and former President of CII and Arun Maira, author of ‘An Upstart in Government: Journeys of Change and Learning’, share the stage during the book launch at IIMB on September 23, 2015.
Arun Maira, former member, Planning Commission of India, argues that the country needs to convert contentions between stakeholders into collaboration to produce results during a discussion on his book at IIMB.
SEPTEMBER 23, 2015: The Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIMB) and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), along with Rupa Publications, hosted the launch of Mr Arun Maira’s book, ‘An Upstart in Government: Journeys of Change and Learning’, on Wednesday, September 23, 2015, at the IIMB auditorium.
Welcoming the audience, mainly comprising students from IIMB, Dr P D Jose, faculty member, Corporate Strategy & Policy, spoke of his association with Mr Maira, former member, Planning Commission of India, and quoted anecdotes from the book to emphasise that development came from building collaborative systems. “Mr Maira’s book analyses the reasons why policies stall and fail in India; for a country as diverse and complex as India, development will come from building strong networks of collaborative action, rather than hierarchies and bureaucracies,” he said.
In his opening remarks, Mr Anand Sudarshan, Co-Chairman, FICCI Karnataka State Council, said the book reflected Mr Maira’s vast experience of having worked in India and overseas as well as in the Government sector. “The book is unique as it is reflective rather than prescriptive - the book makes the reader reflect deeply. The anchor points from which these reflections will start will be yours, but the sheer panorama of reflection will get influenced by what you will read from the book…prescriptions do not allow you to do that”, he added.
In his response to the remarks, the author dwelt on his tenure at the Planning Commission and peppered his narrative with gentle humour. “I received many complaints from people in industry and civil society as things were not improving fast enough in the country and they categorically told me not to write another plan. ‘Just make things happen’, they said,” he exclaimed.
Mr Maira then pointed out that all of us need to ask questions, get to the root cause of things not moving fast enough, identify what is acting as the hindrance to India’s progress and produce the outcome that we want in our country. “India has millions of bottlenecks. There are various instances when policies are not formed or not implemented; when projects remain incomplete and investment/funds are stuck. We need to establish why these bottlenecks exist. Often, this is due to contentions between different stakeholders, lack of coordination and confusion. We need to convert these contentions into more collaboration so that together we can produce the results that we all will benefit from”.
“Can we, as a county, learn to cooperate and learn to coordinate?” he probed. “We need to adopt principles and methods to turn contentions into collaboration and confusion into coordination, so that noble intensions can be converted through implementation into desired outcomes. In this endeavour to produce results, we can learn from other countries like Germany, Sweden, Japan, Brazil and the like, who found ways for stakeholders to work together,” he explained.
The author concluded by saying: “Can we help the system to work, with people taking charge of their parts of the system and collaborating with others who also have responsibility? That’s what the book is about. I believe the use of such methods can transform the lives of many people”.
The chief guest, who released the book earlier in the evening, Mr B. Muthuraman, former CEO of TATA Steel, former President of CII and a Padma Bhushan awardee, shared his thoughts on the book and the author. “The contents of the book are a reflection of the character of the author himself. The book tells us that the author is an India lover; it reveals his love for the House of Tata from where he has imbibed many business principles and it talks about his passion for creating a shared vision,” he said.
Dr P D Jose remarked that Arun Maira had the perfect “outsider-insider” view of Government. “One of the highlights of the book is Mr Maira’s depiction of the potential and frailties of our system, about a bureaucracy which can drive changes, but is rule-bound.” The country, said Dr Jose, needed to find innovative solutions as it was hamstrung by rules and regulations and had a legacy that often prevented it from moving forward. The key lessons from the book, he continued, were that the best intended actions were often hamstrung by political expediencies, so one did need to adopt a collaborative approach to achieve efficiency, productivity and so on. “There is only one way to progress and that is through collaboration,” he added.
The event wrapped up with a Q&A session, which was informative. The author pointed out that individuals should take initiative, move forward and inspire others to do the same. “Thus, we can all become part of the solution. If people become leaders in their own sphere-we can change the country,” he said. Fielding a question from a student, Mr Maira said the only asset in any enterprise whose value appreciates with time was human capital, hence conditions had to be created to nurture human beings.
About the author: Currently the Chancellor of the Central University of Himachal Pradesh, Mr Arun Maira was a Member of the Planning Commission of India for five years till June 2014. In his career spanning five decades, Mr Maira has led several organisations such as the Tata Group. He also served as Chairman, Boston Consulting Group, India, for eight years till 2008. His overseas professional stint includes working for Arthur D. Little in the US, where he advised several companies on how to handle transformation change. He has held other leadership positions and is on the board of many companies. He has also been involved with several government committees and organisations.