Culture is India’s strength: Kishore Biyani

Hubballi: People need to think about building an organization in a systematic manner before proceeding with other processes, said philanthropist and managing director of Bain Capital Private Equity, Amit Chandra here on Saturday.
Delivering the inaugural keynote at a panel discussion on "Delivering Prosperity for All" at the 11th Development Dialogue, which is themed "Collaborating for Big Bets", Chandra said that just passion is not enough in building organization, but it is mind which makes the difference in growth. "India needed 1,000 social exceptional leaders to drive social entrepreneurship movement in the next 10 years. But there is a big gap in requirement and emergence of social sector leaders," he said.

Chandra noted that leaders are required to think about attracting talent rather than trying to do everything by themselves. "If the project is perfect and presented before appropriate persons in a convincing manner, attracting talents won't be a problem," he said.

Kishore Biyani, co-founder and group CEO, Future Group, said that culture, heritage and mythology are the strengths of India. "Indians are more sentimental compared citizens of any other nation in the world and it's a unique country that strongly believes in family values. It has to be understood in its own terms without decoding," he said.

Carrie Morgridge, vice-president, Morgridge Family Foundation, said mere writing cheque is not the duty of a philanthropist, but also contributing to the world in various ways. "However, he has to be a keen observant and giving small gifts and even picking trash mattered," she said.

Referring to the issue of lack of toilets for girls in villages and towns, she said, "We have 130 million girls in India who don't go to school because there is no bathroom in the school. Many women from small towns and villages in India don't have the right to go to bathroom," she shared.

Gururaj Deshpande, founder, Deshpande Foundation, who moderated the discussion, called for the need to connect with different sections of the society in order to scale solutions so as to reach larger sections.