A detailed conclusion paper from the recent IMA session with Rashmi Pradeep will follow in a couple of days, but in the meantime your columnist offers this brief assessment of the four new labour codes and what they mean for business.  

As a younger man, your columnist once wandered through the vast courtyards of the Meenakshi Temple in Madurai, awed by its towering gopurams and the hum of quiet devotion. What struck him most, though, was how seamlessly faith and enterprise co...

In a fast-changing business environment, leaders are expected to deliver growth, innovation and impact all at once. A recent session of the IMA India CEO Forum featured B Santhanam, Former CEO of Saint-Gobain Asia Pacific and India Region, who ...

At our recent Q3FY26 CHRO Forum Dialogue in Bangalore, we hosted former Nestlé CMD Suresh Narayanan, who, drawing on decades of experience stewarding culture and capability and managing crises, reflected on the principles that anchor leadership...

In an era where marketing is expected to prove its value with precision, AI is reshaping creativity and accountability. At a recent India CMO Forum Coffee Chat in New Delhi, senior marketing leaders examined how AI is being deployed across the ...

For years, business growth in India followed a simple script: acquire more customers, spend heavily on visibility and let scale deliver results. That model is faltering. Rising acquisition costs, proliferating consumer choice and the erosion of...

In an era where technology promises exponential gains but often delivers only incremental results, the CFO’s role has expanded from that of financial custodian to one of transformation catalyst. At a recent India CFO Forum session in Delhi, run...

Your columnist traces his roots to the Paliwal Brahmins of Rajasthan’s Thar Desert, a once-prosperous community that turned the sands of Pali into farmland and bustling trade. Their abrupt exodus centuries ago, driven by excessive taxes and the...

India’s cities, once symbols of ambition, are now choking under filth, traffic and civic neglect. The solution will not come from politics but from enterprise. A “Clean Cities Compact” could unite business groups, local chambers and civic volun...

Continuing our series on India’s merchant classes, this week’s column turns to the Armenians, who arrived during the reign of the Great Mughals. Scattered at first, they later anchored themselves in Calcutta and Madras, then the twin capitals o...

The relationship between India and the United States will, in many ways, define the fate of the Western alliance and the balance of power in the decades ahead. Washington’s turn to transactional behaviour risks undoing years of careful diplomac...

In an environment where volatility is unrelenting and risks extend well beyond finance, the remit of the CFO has become that of an enterprise risk leader. At a recent India CFO Forum session inMumbai, Rajeev Gupta, CFO of L&T Technology...

In an age where volatility has become the default and hierarchies are flattening under the weight of technology, leadership must shift from command-and-control to collaboration and influence. At a recent joint session of the India CEO, CFO, CHR...

In an era where work is being reshaped by automation, AI and fluid workforce models, the role of leadership is no longer simply to manage people but to design the very architecture of talent. At a recent India CHRO Forum sessi...

Across industries, transformation remains a constant ambition. Yet for CFOs, the hidden force that shapes its success is how organisations unlock value at speed and scale. At a recent India CFO Forum session in Bangalore, Dr Raghav Narsalay, Pa...

In a world where competitive advantages erode faster than ever, the pursuit of leadership is no longer about scale or dominance but about sustained distinctiveness. At a recent session of the India CEO Forum in Mumbai, Shishir Joshipura, former...

The rise of Jardine Matheson owed as much to Bombay as to Britain. Sir Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy, a Parsi merchant , supplied the cargo, capital and connections that William Jardine needed to build his “Noble House.” The Parsis of Bombay were not me...

As American tariffs bite and orders dry up, Indian firms exposed to the US are scrambling for options. None is straightforward. Shifting production elsewhere means heavy capital outlays, new supplier risks and the headache of securing component...

India’s $2.1 trillion consumer economy is being rapidly rewritten. Aspirations are rising, as the rural –urban divide begins to blur. The digital media now shapes buying decisions, even when purchases stay offline.  Premiumisation i...

Your columnist has, over the years, been trained by his better half to visit museums with the noble intent of cultivating an interest in art. Initially reluctant, he is now more attuned to its charms and has even begun to recognise the works of...

The new order will be multipolar, fragmented and spiked with suspicion. America will remain strong but unpredictable. China will be powerful but mistrusted. Europe will hedge and Asia will prepare for the worst.  In this unsettled w...

Tata Motors has learned to treat disruption as a forcing mechanism. Product disappointments such as the Nano and the Indica, exposed not only poor design but also structural weaknesses in quality control and consumer insight. By 2016 the rot wa...

In an era where consumer attention is increasingly fragmented and fleeting, marketing must pivot from persuasive monologues to precise behavioural interventions. At a recent India CMO Forum session in Delhi, Biju Dominic, Chief Evangelist at Fr...

 The world today is in a state of flux - geopolitical tensions, economic volatility, trade wars and environmental crises are converging into an unrelenting storm. In such a landscape, running an enterprise is no longer about operational ex...

Sustainability and ethics are no longer optional 'nice to haves’ but an essential element of long-term business success. Today’s organisations must go beyond minimising their environmental impact and actively integrate ethical practices and sus...