Good governance starts and sustains with the commencement and execution of liberal, decentralized and democratic values. The destiny of an economy depends upon minimization of governmental power and maximization of liberties. A nation survives when its economic philosophy is administered by voluntary actions, not by promises and late-evening surprises. In the current Indian context, Mumbai’s Dabbawalas Business Model stands to be the catalyst of economic functions. If BJP takes a step back from RSS and incorporates the dabbawalas’ style-of-working-and-delivering: the Indian economy can bounce back.
Between 1947–1991, the Indian economy was infected with socialism and the license-raj system. Post 1991, the Indian economy was introduced to the LPG + D reforms (Liberalization, Privatization, Globalization + Digitization). Most statists assume that India won freedom in 2014, but that’s not true. Many continue to believe that the electoral outcome of 2019 is a fragment of their “imagination”. Unfortunately, little do they realize their own political schizophrenia.
The rate of unemployment, job insecurity, curbs on free speech, difficulties in getting a construction permit, capital un-formation, issues related to investments, etc. speak louder than Arnab’s voice, but sadly the public discourse on these issues does not find its deserving attention. Ceteris paribus, Modinomics need to retreat itself and heed to the business model of Mumbai’s Dabbawalas for-once-and-all which is as follows:
- Deliver what you promise, not faking the customers’ cognition or manipulating the expectations of customers’ needs, on time, irrespective of the excuses,
- Develop [the business] value(s) on consumers’ happiness, gratification and relations, without discriminating their identities,
- Internalize managerial changes, without disappointing the externality, customers or imposing a cost on others,
- Decentralize economic and professional functions for the business and market outreach to grow, without any political cacophony,
- Make everyone, irrespective of the differences in opinion(s), feel that they’re important and hold the stake in the common functions of their business,
- Collaborate and compete, to stay healthy and friendly in the market, without lobbying against the opponents,
- Stay active in moving the cheese, or else the conventional mindset will gradually erode the base of management and enterprise,
- Promote creativity, critical thinking and an open mentality to develop ideas and principles without intimidating anyone’s thinking process,
- Seva-dharma (serving poor/needy, non-politically), not Hindutva or any other ideological orientation, is the major constituent of enterprise and strong future, and
- Savour the old but enjoy the change/present without bashing Nehru.
The above axioms are abstract principles of the dabbawalas’ business approach towards the market, which should be incorporated by the Modinomics model as soon as possible or else Indian economy will continue to stay fractured and punctured because of illicit and unscientific economic policies.