#554
Personal update: My medical Diagnosis in going on, looks like long road ahead to recovery, based on Scans etc. Fingers Crossed...! Should get clarity in next 48 hrs!
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I often wonder—where is the soul of Indian governance and corporate life? Why does it seem that so much of what we do in these spaces is mere lip service, with very little concrete action or genuine intent? I have spent decades observing this pattern, and each day, it becomes more apparent that we are stuck in a cycle of empty promises. I recollect my former colleage Ashok Muni, coined an Acronym in 2000, ---> NATO---> No Action, Talk Only.
Take the government, for instance. The very people who promise to serve the nation before they win office seem to forget that mission the moment they step into power. The priority becomes about lining their pockets, securing influence, and staying in power. It’s all a show. Public welfare becomes a byproduct, if that. Basic services, infrastructure improvements, education reforms—all take a back seat to personal gain. Where is the accountability? Where is the vision to build a nation that serves its people first?
Corporates, once held up as paragons of innovation and growth, have also fallen into this trap. In the past 20 years, the culture of greed seems to have overtaken all else. It’s like we’re living in the world of Wall Street’s Gordon Gekko, where "Greed is good" has become the mantra. Employee welfare, working conditions, emotional health—none of these seem to matter as long as profits are high. Also glaring is the lack of Leadership at any level to move the needle forward. Is it any surprise that we are now hearing of young professionals in their 30s, from companies like EY and HDFC Bank, dying due to work stress / burnout? These are people who were supposed to have their entire lives ahead of them, cut short because corporations refuse to address the issue of work-related stress. No one pauses to ask, What are we doing wrong?
What’s worse is that when these tragedies happen, there’s no remorse, no soul-searching from these companies. No corporate entity stands up to say, "We failed." Instead, they quietly move on, as if these lives lost were nothing more than minor blips in their daily operations. The government, too, puts on its dog-and-pony show, slapping companies with meaningless fines or dragging out token investigations that never seem to lead anywhere. Where is the sense of responsibility? Where is the urgency to change things? It appears that accepting mistake/ failure seems to carry a badge of Shame in Indian context.
In contrast, look at a country like Bangladesh. After suffering through devastating Building collapse (Rana Plaza -1000 People Killed) fire disasters that claimed hundreds of lives in their fabric industry, the country took real steps to address the issues. They improved work standards, ensured better safety conditions, and enacted real protections for workers. It’s not perfect, but they learned from their mistakes. They acted.
And here we are, in India, a country with immense potential and wealth, refusing to learn from our own tragedies. Will it take hundreds, or even thousands, more deaths for us to finally wake up? Will the government stop pretending and start working for the people it’s supposed to serve? Will corporations stop paying lip service to employee welfare and start taking real steps to ensure their workforce’s mental and physical health? I wonder.
As much as I want to believe we will course-correct, I am filled with a deep sense of helplessness. The issues are so deeply ingrained—our culture, our priorities, our greed. The systems in place reward those who manipulate them, and those at the top seem to have no incentive to change. Even in the face of undeniable human suffering, we remain blind to our failures.
But we can’t keep going like this, can we? At some point, something has to give. India needs to learn from countries that have faced similar challenges and come out stronger. We need to hold both our government and corporate sectors accountable in a way that forces them to stop the lip service and start taking real, meaningful action.
If Bangladesh could learn and change, so can we. But will we? That’s the question I keep asking myself. And sadly, I don’t have the answer.
Let me know your thoughts/ Comments.
Regards
Karthik.
26th Sep 24, 9am.
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