Walton Hamilton writing on Business said: “Business enterprise, sparked by the march of technology, is beating forever against the political frontier. The spirit of business enterprise is like the wind, it goeth where it listeth”. Some of the industries started by Jamshetji Nusserwanji Tata, a man with great business acumen, were infrastructural and the credit for this founder of the Tata House is all the more great as he nursed his textile and then the iron and steel industry with great success though he was a subject  under the British rule. Jawaharlal Nehru called him “one-man planning commission”.

The first Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru, the central figure in Independent India, believed in Democratic Socialism which did not require the downsizing of the  private sector. He rhetorically admonished the private sector business but inwardly revelled in accommodating them because private sector business had helped the political leadership during the struggle for independence.

The Birla business house was very accommodating to Nehru. When in 1953 businessmen were restless with the terms of the 1948 Industrial Policy Resolution, G. D. Birla exhorted them to be patient. He said: “a businessman is not a businessman unless he can adjust himself to the changing conditions”. Nehru was pleased with this attitude of businessmen. This same G.D. Birla  had confrontation with a Britisher who told him that  Birla was not allowed to use the lift of the office building. On that day Mr. Birla swore that he would join the political leadership to hunt the British out of India as soon as possible.

Business was sheltered by the Government of India under Nehru, and the license raj unleashed by the bureaucrats in Delhi created monopolies and the government officials lined their pockets as the business houses kept lobbyists in Delhi to cater for their needs by pressurizing the relevant departments of government with kind and cash. This created a bias as the up and coming entrepreneur could not afford the luxury of parting with heavy bribes to get a license. So talent suffered and in the process India became a sellers’ market. I remember when I booked my 2-wheeler Bajaj, in 1977, I got the same allotted to me only after 10 years in 1987.Today that same wheeler is available over the counter.

The license raj continued during the time of Indira Gandhi and that was the time when Dhirubhai Ambani - a man with great foresight - founded the House of Ambanis called Reliance Industries. This Reliance Industries is the flagship of the Mukesh Ambani Group of Industries and Mukesh is the eldest son of  Dhirubhai. Reliance Industries features in Fortune 500. The second son of Dhirubhai is Anil Ambani and he heads the energy and communications group. Anil recently joined with Hollywood icon Spielberg to produce Bollywood films in the United States.

The license raj was like a cancer as it killed talent that lacked capital. License raj also controlled the production capacities. Though one unit had the capacity of 100% production of a certain finished product that the entire nation needed, yet this was allotted to 2 or 3 entrepreneurs and this prevented the machines to operate at optimum capacities. This denied the individual entrepreneur the economies of scale. License raj gave an impetus to the already mounting corruption in India. It killed free enterprise. The bureaucrats and men in political power sacrificed the prosperity of the country on the altar of corrupt practices through which they amassed money and denied the consumers a better deal. No wonder the rich became richer and the poor poorer contravening the promises made in the Constitution of India to attain an equitable distribution of income  and  wealth.

The above state of affairs in the country gave rise to a pressure group called the Forum of Free Enterprise. Some good and enterprising people joined this Forum after accumulating the necessary funds. So far only FICCI (Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industries) was very active in pressurizing the Government and so they ate the best part of the national cake. FICCI  represented Business and the Government had a soft corner for them as they helped the political leadership during elections and  national calamities like wars and floods. Besides the Government relies heavily on the Business community during the time of elections but the quid pro quo involved is the bone of contention. But it happens in most countries and therefore overlooked.

As Indians became more literate and conscious of their rights they formed more pressure groups like Shetkari Sangathana (Farmers’ lobby) and  Labour Unions in order to make proper representation of their difficulties to the Government. For example the House of Tatas has many firsts which they implemented for the benefit of their employees. The Government  was way behind. 

                                            Tatas                  Government
Provident Fund                     1920                            1952
Maternity Benefit                  1928                            1961
Free Medical Aid                  1915                            1948
Profit Sharing Bonus            1934                            1965
Retiring Gratuity                   1937                           1972

India got real liberalization reforms in the nineties. There was end to the license raj and Indian business was thrown open to international competition. Our businessmen survived and then the age of computers and information technology made our business face tough competition. Our businessmen again came with flying colors and at the advent of the 21st century the world suddenly realized the potential of the Indians and the Indian economy that was self sufficient in many raw materials and incredible talent from lakhs of graduates that are turned out from thousands of colleges all over the country every year.

Presently, the Government has faith in the private sector and so makes available to them the best of infrastructural facilities through the Public Sector enterprises. The brain drain has almost stopped and the reverse brain drain is in progress specially in view of the present American meltdown. India is a developing economy and the opportunities are there to make hay while the sun shines. Students have entered various modern fields like culinary arts, hospitality management, media, engineering, biotechnology, advanced information technology, management studies. The business acumen and opportunities are so much that even these graduates are not enough to fill challenging positions in the Indian industrial and business panorama.

The recent terrorist activities to destabilize our economy cannot make any dent as the Indian economical development story is in place. The fundamentals and the moral fiber of the Indian society is very strong and even a suicide attack of the type we had recently on Taj cannot shake our confidence and conviction to move forward. As Jim O’Neill, chief economist, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. says: "Indian economy may outperform expectations as long as India has good relations with Pakistan”.

The Government of India has failed  in protecting its citizens and one by one the Ministers are resigning taking moral responsibility. The Government has failed to take action on the inputs of impending terror they received over last 6 months. Enough is enough and the people of India are going to make it an election issue. Any amount of Ministers resigning cannot bring the innocent and aspiring dead back to their loved ones. It  has become a ritual for Ministers to resign. What the Business community and the people at large want to know is what steps India will take to stop these terrorist activities that can hit travel and tourism, business in general and the security of the unsuspecting citizen. Besides we are setting a bad precedent as a soft power. Wake up the guardians of law and order and save your motherland from these marauders who are given ample time to take dry runs before they strike viciously. Of course as I said earlier they cannot give a setback to our general development but we are leaving a dent on our legacy, a dent that can be more than avoided  by proper vigilance that is the price anyone pays to have good life.