Why no global leaders from India?

Why did it take Ratan Tata so long to find a successor? And why is it that India cannot create leaders like Steve Jobs?

This thought is linked to the current world economic crisis, all due to poor governance. And in India, we have a lack leadership and governance.or econ

So, where have all the leaders gone?

It is well known how we Indians are fastidious about education. Right from the domestic help at home to the owner of a conglomerate, everyone knows that education is empowerment and try to ensure their children get it. When such is the push towards education, why is it that our system is not able to generate a Steve Jobs or Bill Gates or Mark Zuckerberg?

Children, while penning essays about ‘inspirational leaders’, may quote an Indira Nooyi or Vikram Pandit. Both were educated in India but could become global leaders because they were in the US. It is as simple as that. Even Kalpana Chawla became a household name because she was an astronaut in the US; had she lived in India, she might never have got off the earth!

Killing innovation

There are many free thinkers who feel that education in India, which is more about mugging up rather than conceptual clarity, kills innovation. In fact many complain that as students, one is not allowed to be creative. Today, children are not allowed to solve simple maths problems using their creativity; they have to necessarily follow the teacher’s ‘method’.When creativity is killed at this early stage and at such simple levels, little wonder schools do not produce any innovators!

Yes, there is immense talent in India. The National Innovation Foundation (NIF) has said that there are over 1,00,000 outstanding innovations that have come from school dropouts and people from rural India. NIF has managed to get some products commercially manufactured and some exported. But millions of ideas and innovators continue to wait for assistance in terms of funds, technical and design support.

A major shake-up in education is desperately needed in India. We probably have the highest number of MBAs, yet they cannot even think half as innovatively. Are we churning out degrees with no substance?

Build identity

You have an idea and toil for years to get it going, spending all your savings but what is the guarantee that a patent will protect it from being copied immediately? And are such ideas given any support at all? If Steve Jobs was an Indian and he had come up with a product like Apple in India, do you think it could have become a global brand? No way!

Our desi companies are happy to export but money is not spent in developing a global identity. Why? Maybe because we simply cannot afford it or maybe our ‘Made in India’ tag continues to attract condescending attention from world consumers.

But then that attitude also needs to change. Also, emerging economies like ours are becoming manufacturing hubs while the US conserves its energy and resources in building sustainable, global brands.

Thus, emerging economies continue to remain ‘factories’ which is why we are probably driven more by the need to grow economically than concentrate on developing global brands.

It is true that a genius is born once in a lifetime and such a genius cannot be shackled by education. At the same time, it is equally true that education is a must. Or else Dhirubhai and Bill Gates would not have educated their own children. Yes, India surely needs another Dhirubhai or Steve Jobs. And looking at the political mess, another Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi or Vallabhbhai Patel are also desperately needed!

Ruma studied at the Podar College of Commerce and Economics, Mumbai

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