Distinguished panelists come together to speak on ‘Ethics and Governance’, at IIMB’s Leaderspeak dialogue series
August 12, 2015: The Centre for Corporate Governance and Citizenship (CCGC) at the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIMB) hosted a distinguished panel to discuss ‘Ethics and Governance’, today. The panel comprised Pradip Baijal, a career bureaucrat, Chiranjiv Singh, former ambassador of India to UNESCO, Sri Sri Ravishankar, humanitarian and spiritual leader, and Professor Charan Singh, RBI Chair Professor of Economics at IIMB.
The panel discussion was hosted as part of the Leaderspeak dialogue series – an engagement that the Centre for Corporate Governance and Citizenship at IIM Bangalore has with distinguished thought leaders to debate issues on business and corporate responsibility.
Introducing the theme of the discussion, Professor Charan Singh said: “IIM Bangalore recently hosted a similar conference on Ethics. It was on Ethics and Financial Responsibility and was well received. The issue of ethics has become increasingly relevant because of the impact it has on the financial status of the country and on human lives. In India heavy industries, such as textiles, infrastructure, aviation, mining and iron and steel, are going bankrupt and employees are not getting their salaries, but in sharp contrast industrialists continue to lead the good life. Banks are struggling and the government is trying to capitalize these banks through the money collected from tax payers and stressing the gross fiscal deficit. While ethics is about right and wrong behavior, corporates seem to be focused on only maximizing the wealth of shareholders. Clearly, there is a crying need for ethical and responsible behaviour in all sectors. Is there a trade-off between ethics and profit making? Should such questions be left to compliance alone? I hope this panel gives us some answers.”
“I was surprised to read a report on Administrative Reforms, where ethics have been defined as ‘arising out of habit’ but so is corruption! Both ethics and corruption are habit-forming. In my humble view, our ancient scriptures, excellent as they are, do not help us battle with the issues of ethics in our contemporary context. We are vibrant democracy, powered by the youth, who seek quick answers. Hence we need to highlight cases of corporates, where profits are being made by companies following ethical practices,” said Pradip Baijal.
“Earlier, people in this country did not vote according to the tenets of ethics and governance; they voted on lines of caste, community and religion. Now, corruption – 2G scam, coalgate, helicoptergate and so on – has enormous impact on the polity of the country. People have tasted blood, having made corruption their plank and they will not rest till change comes in. That is our only hope. We need to remember people like Justice Santosh Hegde, Anna Hazare and Prashanth Bhushan and the battles they continue to wage against corruption by exciting public opinion. We also need to maintain the freedom of institutions like free press, RTI, Lokayukta etc.,” he added.
The audience erupted into spontaneous applause when Baijal recalled how the Halwai (sweetmeat sellers) Association of Chandni Chowk in Delhi had issued a press note recently, announcing that they had reduced the price of their samosas from Rs. 5 to Rs. 4, saying the extra rupee had hitherto gone towards paying off bribes but they had now eschewed the practice and had decided to pass on the benefit of that saved rupee to the customer!
The panelists further offered real-life examples of people who had risen by ethical behaviour and of firms that had collapsed by succumbing to unethical practices. Sri Sri Ravishankar defined ethics in simple terms. “What you do not want others to do to you, you should not do to others. You do not want your employee to cheat you, so you should not cheat your employee. I am not talking of utopia. This can be a reality and I trust our enthusiastic youth to imbibe and spread values such as humanness and belongingness. We must dream of a better world for our children,” he explained.
Recalling the AOL movement ‘India Against Terrorism’ launched in 2009, he said that became the foundation of the forum, India Against Corruption, roping in personalities like Anna Hazare. “We learnt one important lesson from 2009: Corruption starts when the sense of belongingness ends. No one practices corruption with their own folks,” he said, adding that it was this realization that motivated him travel across the length and breadth of the country, spreading the sense of belongingness.
“In Nagar in Maharashtra, there was a road leading to our Centre. The road was full of potholes and the youth had to keep changing their motorcycle tyres every month. Fifty young men from the area went to the mayor’s office, sat there quietly and told the mayor that they would sit there, sing and chant until the road was repaired. The road was repaired with 24 hours. I know ours is a large country with big problems but every effort to act helps,” he said, calling for people to “wake up and act”. Pointing out that every individual could be a leader, he said sustainable change in society would come not from ‘andolans’ led by leaders of stature but from sustained action by common people. Sustained responsible action, he said, would only come from inculcating ethics in lessons in school and college.
Chiranjiv Singh, who will soon be knighted by the government in Paris for his contributions as India’s ambassador to UNESCO in Paris, said: “Ultimately, ethics is all about the golden mean – ‘Do unto others what you would have them to do unto you’.” Quoting from a speech given by his mentor J C Lynn, he said: “Ethics are what you learn at your mother’s knee. In Indian languages we do not have an equivalent word for ethics. The word ethics comes from the Greek word ‘ethos’, but what we do have in Indian languages is the word ‘Dharma’. It is the principle of righteousness that sustains both self and society. The question is how do you square your personal values with your administrative responsibilities or your corporate values? That is the dilemma and that is also a question each of us has to answer on our own.”
Quoting from Peter Drucker as well as Robert Bolt, he encouraged students of management to hold on to their conscience while facing dilemmas and cautioned them that, even then, there would no easy answers. “In life, there is an inner journey and there is the external journey. The challenge is to maintain the balance between the two.”
Earlier in the evening, Manoj Chakravarti, Chief Operations Officer, CCGC, welcomed the audience to the discussion and offered a brief overview of the Centre chaired by Professor Rejie George.
About CCGC:
The Centre for Corporate Governance and Citizenship (CCGC) at IIM Bangalore was inaugurated in 2003, by Judge Mervyn King of South Africa and was amongst the first to be accredited as a National Centre of Excellence by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Government of India. The Centre is engaged in Research, Training, Teaching and Advocacy, in the field of Governance, Ethics, Corporate Social Responsibility Governance, Ethics, Sustainability and Responsible Business.
Distinguished panelists come together to speak on ‘Ethics and Governance’, at IIMB’s Leaderspeak dialogue series
August 12, 2015: The Centre for Corporate Governance and Citizenship (CCGC) at the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIMB) hosted a distinguished panel to discuss ‘Ethics and Governance’, today. The panel comprised Pradip Baijal, a career bureaucrat, Chiranjiv Singh, former ambassador of India to UNESCO, Sri Sri Ravishankar, humanitarian and spiritual leader, and Professor Charan Singh, RBI Chair Professor of Economics at IIMB.
The panel discussion was hosted as part of the Leaderspeak dialogue series – an engagement that the Centre for Corporate Governance and Citizenship at IIM Bangalore has with distinguished thought leaders to debate issues on business and corporate responsibility.
Introducing the theme of the discussion, Professor Charan Singh said: “IIM Bangalore recently hosted a similar conference on Ethics. It was on Ethics and Financial Responsibility and was well received. The issue of ethics has become increasingly relevant because of the impact it has on the financial status of the country and on human lives. In India heavy industries, such as textiles, infrastructure, aviation, mining and iron and steel, are going bankrupt and employees are not getting their salaries, but in sharp contrast industrialists continue to lead the good life. Banks are struggling and the government is trying to capitalize these banks through the money collected from tax payers and stressing the gross fiscal deficit. While ethics is about right and wrong behavior, corporates seem to be focused on only maximizing the wealth of shareholders. Clearly, there is a crying need for ethical and responsible behaviour in all sectors. Is there a trade-off between ethics and profit making? Should such questions be left to compliance alone? I hope this panel gives us some answers.”
“I was surprised to read a report on Administrative Reforms, where ethics have been defined as ‘arising out of habit’ but so is corruption! Both ethics and corruption are habit-forming. In my humble view, our ancient scriptures, excellent as they are, do not help us battle with the issues of ethics in our contemporary context. We are vibrant democracy, powered by the youth, who seek quick answers. Hence we need to highlight cases of corporates, where profits are being made by companies following ethical practices,” said Pradip Baijal.
“Earlier, people in this country did not vote according to the tenets of ethics and governance; they voted on lines of caste, community and religion. Now, corruption – 2G scam, coalgate, helicoptergate and so on – has enormous impact on the polity of the country. People have tasted blood, having made corruption their plank and they will not rest till change comes in. That is our only hope. We need to remember people like Justice Santosh Hegde, Anna Hazare and Prashanth Bhushan and the battles they continue to wage against corruption by exciting public opinion. We also need to maintain the freedom of institutions like free press, RTI, Lokayukta etc.,” he added.
The audience erupted into spontaneous applause when Baijal recalled how the Halwai (sweetmeat sellers) Association of Chandni Chowk in Delhi had issued a press note recently, announcing that they had reduced the price of their samosas from Rs. 5 to Rs. 4, saying the extra rupee had hitherto gone towards paying off bribes but they had now eschewed the practice and had decided to pass on the benefit of that saved rupee to the customer!
The panelists further offered real-life examples of people who had risen by ethical behaviour and of firms that had collapsed by succumbing to unethical practices. Sri Sri Ravishankar defined ethics in simple terms. “What you do not want others to do to you, you should not do to others. You do not want your employee to cheat you, so you should not cheat your employee. I am not talking of utopia. This can be a reality and I trust our enthusiastic youth to imbibe and spread values such as humanness and belongingness. We must dream of a better world for our children,” he explained.
Recalling the AOL movement ‘India Against Terrorism’ launched in 2009, he said that became the foundation of the forum, India Against Corruption, roping in personalities like Anna Hazare. “We learnt one important lesson from 2009: Corruption starts when the sense of belongingness ends. No one practices corruption with their own folks,” he said, adding that it was this realization that motivated him travel across the length and breadth of the country, spreading the sense of belongingness.
“In Nagar in Maharashtra, there was a road leading to our Centre. The road was full of potholes and the youth had to keep changing their motorcycle tyres every month. Fifty young men from the area went to the mayor’s office, sat there quietly and told the mayor that they would sit there, sing and chant until the road was repaired. The road was repaired with 24 hours. I know ours is a large country with big problems but every effort to act helps,” he said, calling for people to “wake up and act”. Pointing out that every individual could be a leader, he said sustainable change in society would come not from ‘andolans’ led by leaders of stature but from sustained action by common people. Sustained responsible action, he said, would only come from inculcating ethics in lessons in school and college.
Chiranjiv Singh, who will soon be knighted by the government in Paris for his contributions as India’s ambassador to UNESCO in Paris, said: “Ultimately, ethics is all about the golden mean – ‘Do unto others what you would have them to do unto you’.” Quoting from a speech given by his mentor J C Lynn, he said: “Ethics are what you learn at your mother’s knee. In Indian languages we do not have an equivalent word for ethics. The word ethics comes from the Greek word ‘ethos’, but what we do have in Indian languages is the word ‘Dharma’. It is the principle of righteousness that sustains both self and society. The question is how do you square your personal values with your administrative responsibilities or your corporate values? That is the dilemma and that is also a question each of us has to answer on our own.”
Quoting from Peter Drucker as well as Robert Bolt, he encouraged students of management to hold on to their conscience while facing dilemmas and cautioned them that, even then, there would no easy answers. “In life, there is an inner journey and there is the external journey. The challenge is to maintain the balance between the two.”
Earlier in the evening, Manoj Chakravarti, Chief Operations Officer, CCGC, welcomed the audience to the discussion and offered a brief overview of the Centre chaired by Professor Rejie George.
About CCGC:
The Centre for Corporate Governance and Citizenship (CCGC) at IIM Bangalore was inaugurated in 2003, by Judge Mervyn King of South Africa and was amongst the first to be accredited as a National Centre of Excellence by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Government of India. The Centre is engaged in Research, Training, Teaching and Advocacy, in the field of Governance, Ethics, Corporate Social Responsibility Governance, Ethics, Sustainability and Responsible Business.