The Hindu Business Line : Superpower India and fractal dynamics

IN LOOKING at the future one is often seized by a sense that India will emerge as a superpower. One feels the tremendous possibilities in the intellectual power, the availability of natural resources, the vast diversity in the country, and one is upheld in one's beliefs by the huge output from previous eras staring at one in the face through the extraordinary architecture, art, music, dance, literature, present in all parts of India.

Yet, when we look around at the output of today, we are met with a practical reality that hardly supports the notion of superpower-hood. In this concluding piece in the fractal dynamics series, let us look at some insights provided by fractal dynamics to glean what we can on how India may indeed emerge as a superpower.

The first question to ask, is in its fractal journey, where is India at the moment? Recall, as pointed out in "The imperative fractal journey" (Business Line, October 27, 2003), that broadly speaking there are three levels in the journey — physical, vital, and mental, and that for success to result, it is imperative that this journey be completed.

In the context of nation-building the physical would refer to there being a sound basis on which the rest of the country can be built. The vital would refer to a reality of increasing vibrancy where perhaps enterprises and experiments and communities of different kinds can find expression and even some degree of fulfilment.

The mental would refer to myriad examples of significant innovation, regardless of field. Instances, thus, of new technologies, new discoveries, new processes, new substances of various kinds from alloys to composites to superconductors to medicines, new models for community and business development, would abound, perhaps.

In considering where the country is presently, it is easiest to start at the mental level and work backwards. In looking around we see few examples of new technologies or new discoveries. We see few examples of radical new ways to do old things. Contrast this to a country like the US or Japan where radical new approaches and technologies are comparatively more abundant. Hence it should be clear that we are not at the mental level.

Are we at the vital-level then? In looking around we begin to notice an increase in the level of vibrancy in certain sectors. There is a huge increase in the number of cell-phone subscribers. Air travel and the number of automobile purchases are continually increasing. The number of housing constructions is also increasing. IT services too is reportedly rising. Yet, there also appears to be a holding back, not so much on the part of individuals, but by the system itself.

The system does not appear to be ready to support the urge for the increase in activity. Provision and servicing of loans seems slow. Transport and ports still congested. Outages of power and water-cuts still too frequent. Connectivity in communications — in terms of speed, reliability and bandwidth still too insufficient. Permissions and paperwork far too tedious. Not to mention of course, the fact that 60 per cent of the population is still below the poverty line.

From this quick and admittedly summary heuristic it seems thus, that we are still primarily at the physical level, but are making efforts at various points to emerge into the vital level.

This is where we have to be cautious, and opportunistic. On the side of caution, there appears still to be such a holding back, that when the reins are even further loosened, the system could easily lurch forward in an uncontrollable manner.

What could result is the same phenomenon pointed out in "The fractal-print of biotechnology" (January 27, 2004), where the field of biotechnology with its tremendous promise was seized by the unrestrained vital force, thereby compromising on thoroughness of solution to quickly enrich instead.

For many this may not be a bad thing. The equitable distribution of wealth, were it to result, is surely a good thing. It is the force behind it, though, that one needs to be mindful of. For, as has been pointed out in "Fractal Space: A new dynamics of organisation" (December 17, 2003), the unrestrained vital-force is unsustainable and can easily create a series of bankrupt and scandal-ridden Enrons and devastated WTC's in its wake.

On the side of opportunism, and having gauged that our physical-level make-up comprises of a vast number of poor people, products and services should be so designed that there is a radical breakthrough in terms of cost and efficiency, and hence naturally, in innovativeness, so that they are more easily available to the poorer segments in society. The grooves of development easily run along the lines established by developed nations, and it is easier to follow them, than to step away, objectively observe, and build anew so that the same potential pitfalls do not get repeated.

For if India is to become a superpower, it must become a sustainable superpower, and this means that it must develop along lines different, and perhaps more natural to the reality that not only exists in it now, but that upheld its great development in the eras of the past. Its development hence, as has just been pointed out must leverage existing difficult situations by assimilating them into everyday thinking, at all levels.

Enter, hence, the fractal savant. In "Emergence of the fractal savant" (December 30, 2003), we had pointed to the need for true individuals to emerge. These men and women are individuals because they think for themselves. They do not blindly accept the existing ways of doing things.

Key areas of nation-development, be it in agriculture or manufacturing or space-technology or energy or computers or telecommunications or Defence, have to be populated by potential fractal savants, who essentially grow up in and master these areas, and progressively impart something of themselves, something living, into practical reality.

sIt is only so that India will truly define new technologies, arguably the most apposite of mental-level flowers, in terms of their decisive ability in shifting the balance of power from one nation to another.

As in India of old, where a rishi often sensed a future rishi, and took him under his wing and developed him by imparting to him something of himself, potential fractal savants will have to be sensed by existing fractal savants, and then through living interaction, the seeds of fractal-savanthood passed on and nurtured, until unique living personalities emerge.

This will require a different type and degree of interaction than can be provided by even the best contemporary business organisations. We may look at "Motive forces for a new business model" (April 18, 2003), for hints at what the more `interactive' organisation may look like. In a world that is enamoured of vital-level dynamics, such as growing rich fast at the expense of others or the environment, the need for fractal-savanthood becomes necessary.

This dynamic in fact, pointed out in some detail in "Fractal-evolution and the digital age" (March 12, 2004), implies the continuing of fractal journeys from higher and higher base levels, and ensures the means for enduring success.

When we look at this ascension even more closely, and consider the fact, as was pointed out in "Fractals and the future of organisations" (September 10, 2003), the beginning piece in this series, that the fractal and hence the ascension is apparently ubiquitous, it is almost as though there were a Conscious Design to things. It is almost as though a vast teleological principle reveals itself, and in the revealing imparts the greatest secret of superpower-hood that a nation can ever hope to embrace. That there is a power beyond all powers, and only in opening to it, can true superpower-hood be achieved.

In the comprehensive embracing of what is implied by fractal dynamics, hence, such that the sense and reality of success in the journey is balanced by an opening to that which is represented by each of the journeys, will India become an enduring and perhaps exemplary superpower.

(The author is founder of Aurosoorya, a firm specialising in creativity and innovation, and has consulted with several organisations worldwide. He can be reached through the Aurosoorya Web-site at www.aurosoorya.com)