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        Arun Maira, in his great book Remaking India-One Country, One Destiny, firmly declares that we have to treat our over hundred crores of people not as liabilities but as assets. According to him three changes are essential to convert people from being the problem to becoming part of the solution. The first is to create a contagion of hope. We require dynamic leaders upholding a vision for the country and propagating stories of success sparking hope which is vital to start a transformation of attitudes. The second is to engage people, encouraging them to help themselves, thereby overcoming the feeling of impotence and helplessness that pervades us in the face of interminable problems that we feel are always beyond our control. With this kind of people-oriented, people-involving and people-inspiring approach, many villages in Rajasthan have found workable solutions to chronic water shortage. Many self-help groups among women in Tamilnadu have been able to raise themselves above the poverty line.

        Apart from these two changes, the third and the most essential change is to create alignment among many perspectives. To quote Arun Maira's words in this context: 'We are blessed or cursed, some would say' with diversity. This richness can be a blessing if we can work together effectively. But if we cannot, which too often seems to be the case, we may not realise our vision. Political parties espouse one thing when in power and the opposite when they are not, merely to trip the Government of the day. We must have alignment on a few fundamental goals and principles. These will form the bridge to take us across to the land on the other side, a land without poverty which stands tall and mightily respected amongst nations. ....We need a productive dialogue amongst leaders representing diverse stakeholders in our society. This dialogue will have two purposes. The first is to develop a shared vision of the nation that we are aiming to become. The second is to agree on the few fundamental strategies that we will have to follow.'

        The fight between private capitalism and State socialism which began in the first decade of the 20th century ended in the resounding triumph of private capitalism with the fall of Soviet Union in 1989. The final verdict was that business should be conducted by the people and not the State. The main tool of private capitalism is the limited liability company. Companies are created to serve the needs of their shareholders. Rooted in this narrow and rising ideology of the 1990s, many business corporations started believing only in their commercial business with no obligation whatsoever to provide other services to the community. This view is now being increasingly questioned throughout the world. It is in this context that the concept of 'corporate social responsibility' has come to the forefront in all public debates about business corporations and their ways of functioning. Many companies in the West have become completely aware of the spirit and letter of this social responsibility cast upon them. There is greater need in India than the West to build systems to serve the societal needs for health care, education and the like. It is disheartening to note that many companies in India are curtailing their welfare programmes to concentrate on their core business activities. The time has come for Indian business to declare its agenda for fulfilling society's expectations and be seen to live up to it. The three areas for companies' engagement with society are:

        a) The Physical environment: Preserving and/or improving it - avoiding pollution, aforestation, etc.

        b) The Social environment: Engaging with communities' needs for services such as education, health, water, sanitation, infrastructure, etc.

        c) The Political environment: Influencing the process of improvement in public policy and governance.

        It is now widely accepted everywhere that business should not be left uncontrolled to spoil the physical environment. The role of business in the social agenda is less clear - though the imperative need to contribute is increasingly understood and realised. According to Arun Maira, it well behoves business leaders to productively engage civil society and Government in a constructive dialogue to confirm what society should fairly expect from them. If they wish to be seen as leaders of desirable change in society, Indian businessmen should take the lead to establish this dialogue.

        Arun Maira asked the CEO of one of India's larger companies: 'What is the change that was noticeable in the 1990s?' He got the reply: 'The knocking on the window'. In India we have always had poor people on the streets and vagrant beggars. Now they knock hard on the windows of cars at traffic points and it is not easy to chase them away. The cars have changed too. Ambassadors and Fiats have been replaced by international models. All the beggars knock on their windows. Arun Maira declares with conviction: 'In India, as everywhere in the world today, leaders of business corporations must shoulder a greater responsibility for answering the knock on the window'. This means business leaders must discover new solutions that, while meeting the increasing demands of their own shareholders, also address broader social issues.

        Indian business leaders need a new approach to increase the purchasing power of the poor more quickly. The leaders in India will be those who experiment and discover pathways for accelerated development and growth of their businesses in India. The knocking on the window may not only be a warning but an opportunity to grow their businesses as well. The key to creating markets at the bottom of the pyramid is to grow incomes of poor people in rural areas by making them part of extended, networked enterprises. Corporations should consider new models of organizing and governing businesses. Information Technology can be an enabler.

        In July 2003, George Robertson, Secretary General of NATO, was asked whether the force of arms would root out terrorism or was another approach necessary. Arun Maira says that Robertson answered like a Zen Master, saying that we have a 'Conceptual Emergency'. And he waved a little booklet, which he said would suggest how to find the answer to the question! The booklet The Things To Do In A Conceptual Emergency was produced by the International Futures Forum, a group of 24 Economists, Businessmen, Technologists, Scientists, Philosophers and Artists from the UK, Europe, USA, South Africa and India. They were asked to find the next Enlightenment! This programme was sponsored by the Scottish Council Foundation and British Petroleum. The sponsors felt that the First Enlightenment Ideas of the 18th century were inadequate to address the systematic problems the world was facing today, such as the degradation of the environment, depletion of water resources, endemic poverty in many parts of the world and violent conflicts. All these intellectual giants came to this conclusion:

        'Our knowledge about the world is unprecedented, as is the level of communication across the globe, the pace of development of new technologies and many other phenomena. In consequence, almost everywhere we look what used to be the stuff of dreams can now be contemplated in terms of practical reality. We are living in a world in which almost anything seems possible, yet in which the forces of fragmentation and alienation seem at least as strong as those of integration and mindfulness; we seem short of the wisdom to choose which possibilities to explore and which to deny'.

        All the economists are predicting that the global GDP would keep on rising in the coming years. Many fear that the ruthless march on this narrow road, focussed on economic growth through globalization, is threatening diversity. They would like a world with multiple modernities and not just one Western or increasing US-centric view of what it means to be modern. I fully endorse the view of Arun Maira that the challenge before the world is to respect, grow and take advantage of the multiple modern sensibilities each with its own roots, both in the East and the West. The conceptual challenge is to develop effective processes of governance for a world with diversity to preserve many models and yet create one unifying model.

        Unlike Tony Blair and George Bush who used their modern Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) in order to fight the non-existent Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) in Iraq, Arun Maira talks about the strategic importance of a new type of WMD that we really want in India. For him, WMD not only in the Indian context but in the wider global context means 'Ways of Mass Dialogue'. Firstly, 'Dialogue' is certainly not a physical process with scuffles and frequent walkouts, which is what our Parliamentary process often degenerates into. Secondly, it is not a debate in which people are compelled to advocate opposing points of view, but a process during which people rise above their different perspectives. Thirdly, 'Dialogue' is not a summation of many monologues, which is what most of our Seminars turn out to be. To quote the beautiful words of Arun Maira: 'A Dialogue requires participative formats that facilitate listening, inquiry, and exploration, not speeches from a panel with perfunctory questions and answers. We urgently need effective dialogues to help stop the bleeding of our national potential and the lives of our people.'

        In clear terms Arun Maira proclaims that progress in every age results only from the fact that there are some exceptional men and women who refuse to believe that what they know to be right cannot be done. Progress can be made possible only by constantly striving towards new horizons in every human activity. Who can say what new horizons lie before us? If we can but maintain the initiative and develop the imagination to penetrate them - new economic horizons, new horizons in the art of government, new social horizons and new horizons expanding in all directions to the end - then perhaps we may succeed in ensuring greater degrees of well being for everyone everywhere in India.