Learned Sobreity

Following his objections to the proposed Vedanta resources mining project in Orissa, a local newspaper dubbed environment and forestry minister Jairam Ramesh an Indian Dr. No.

Is Jairam Ramesh a Dr. No "Evil"

Ramesh is obstructing 622 projects, taking note of small print acknowledging environmental destruction and tribal displacement. One of these projects is the Navi Mumbai airport, from which I personally stand to benefit. I always regarded Jairam sahab as a hero. He is our man in New Delhi.  By 'our', I mean the engineering & medicine community; the educated middle class, la Mr Bhalla and Mr Wagle. Though, since he obstructed the Navi Mumbai proposal, I am beginning to suspect him and the entire highly educated south indian community, of a stereotypical bulldozing emphasis on high education and morals. Running down business interests can spare the nation in the sphere of education but yield sobering results on overall development. Clearly, the Sobra were never oblivious of the misgivings of federal bureaucracy. After all, it was diplomat Mani Shankar Aiyer, a former member of the Marxist society at Cambridge, his brother Swaminathan Ankleswar Aiyer, also an economist and columnist, and long term congress coalition cabinet minister P Chidambaram, who flushed opinion columns with meaningful comments helping India's confused intelligentsia through the early years of globalization. To his credit, Chidambaram has been on the board of directors of Vedanta resources and once represented the controversial Enron project. But he may be a little bit of an oulier.

P Chidambaram

Swami Aiyer

Mani Aiyer

My suspicion of Sobra interest in national development derives from the relative scarcity of Sobra owned businesses. With no malice to any community, can we ask why the Sobra have stayed way behind the "gang of four" namely the Marwaris, the Gujaratis, the Sindhis and the Punjabis. Here is a list of the most prominent Indian business people : 
1. Ambanis of Reliance
2. Birlas
3. Laxmi Mittal of Arcelor Mittal
4. Tatas
5. Godrej
6. Jindals
7. Mallya of Kingfisher
8. Ruias of Essar group
9. Agarwals of Vedanta
10. Jagtiani of Landmark
11. Hindujas
12. NarayanaMurthy of Infosys
13. Azim Premji of Wipro
14. Tulsi Tanti of Suzlon
15. Sabeer Bhatia of Hotmail
16. Hiranandani of Hiranandani builders
17. Rahejas of Raheja builders
18. Grandhi Mallikarjun Rao of GMR
19. TVS Srinivasan of TVS
20. Oberoi

Note that NarayanaMurthy is an accidental businessman. GMR is focussed on the rather federalistic business of national infrastructure development and maintenance. Mallya is a party man and poster boy of liberal capitalism.  All are unconventional. If you look at the list, it is dominated by the gang of four plus parsis and bohris. The latter are speakers of Gujarati.

Real Estate developer Tarneja needs to grease Commissioner DeMello in Kundan Shah's classic Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron

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Harpreet Singh Bedi, an unlikely CEO

Karthik Shankar : stuck in second tier, despite being a topper

Kulwant Bhatia( Manmeet Singh) asks a suited-booted presenter : what are the effects of floating long term debt in a potentially inflationary economy. The lady sitting by lowers her nose rims "do you know anything about inventory management ?". Yes, Indiabulls is creating smart investors.

Here is a link to the Manmeet Singh Indiabulls ads. Although Punjabis and Sindhis have sparked ire over media portrayals of their ilk as stereotypical back benchers, they have never thanked the media for advertising their stereotypical leadership skills, which matter more in the business world.  Either fortunately or unfortunately, both sides of the stereotype might hold up against the morass of empirical data. The Sobra however, are comfortable with their academic genius, musically gifted conservative-moralist image.

But is it true that the Sobra community intends to obstruct India's economic progress ? In the the light of the fact that there are a number of pejoratives associated with being highly educated in the business world, it is possible that prejudice may exist on the side of the businessman as well. The learned men in white linen need to get their hands dirty; without that it is unlikely that the seemingly undereducated business community of India will lose its thought leadership.