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The Rediff Business Special/Mukesh Ambani

No sacrifices for vested interests, may the best progress

The years ahead

Inequity everywhere

Attempts to be world class

With the passion I have to transform India I can go on forever with a long list of actions. No one individual can transform India -- millions of Indians will have to be the architects and pilot the mission to make India an economic super-power.

Challenges in the new millennium can be met only if society as a whole and all its sections are endowed with leadership fired with passion and ready to lead by example. Individuals and institutions have to serve as role models and the society has to be generous in rewarding and appreciating achievements.

Only an inspiring vision throws up a highly motivated leadership. When such a vision grips the minds of masses, it becomes a material force. Conditions are then created for building and sustaining institutions that serve as engines of rapid all-round advancement. Rules then become tools and not an end in themselves. Performance becomes the decisive and dominant criteria.

Challenges of the new millennium

Challenges of the new millennium demand a fundamental and radical overhaul of our governance and managing processes. This requires boldness in decision-making and courage in implementation.

For example, if China could cut its bureaucracy by half, why cannot India do likewise? We cannot condemn the future to darkness just to survive in the present. We cannot sacrifice the hundreds of millions of new entrants in the economy to preserve the vested interests of a few millions who are already employed. We cannot deny the light of modern education to the younger generation to pamper those who have a vested interest in institutions and a system that produce unemployables.

Commitment to excellence

The New World order demands unswerving commitment to excellence. It will not be enough to march forward. It will be necessary to stay ahead. Our generation must remain vigilant and can give itself no respite if we wish our children and grandchildren to live with dignity and self-respect in the new millennium.

We stand on the doorsteps of unprecedented changes and opportunities. Given determination, commitment and indomitable will, we can seize them and make good the lag of the last two hundred years. We can continue to drift towards the bottom of the international scale or take destiny in our hands and rise to the peak and carve out a place for India amongst the top five.

I have no doubt in my mind that we as Indians shall overcome.

Hum honge kamiyab (we will succeed).

Mukesh Ambani is vice-chairman and managing director of Reliance Industries Limited. He delivered the keynote address at the annual general meeting of the Indian Merchants' Chamber, Bombay, on April 26, 1999.

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