From administration to management: NR Narayana Murthy calls for a paradigm shift in India’s approach
At the CNBC-TV18 Global Leadership Summit in Mumbai on November 14, Murthy highlighted how a management mindset—focused on vision, agility, competitiveness, and learning from others—could drive the nation toward ambitious goals like reaching a $50 trillion economy by 2047.
He suggested Prime Minister Narendra Modi consider integrating management-trained professionals into governance to enhance decision-making, efficiency, and implementation, building on the foundation of Modi’s economic achievements.
Below is the verbatim transcript of the interview.
Q: As you look at where India stands today, there is a lot of hope and optimism. What is your prescription for the road ahead to the next 25 for India?
A: We have done reasonably well in the last 30 years. And in the last 10 years, we have acquired a new confidence, a New Hope, a new sense of energy. For example, in my own middle-class locality where I live in Bengaluru, Jayanagar, I see new restaurants coming up, small restaurants, new barber shops, new fitness saloons, and street vendors selling apples, oranges, peas, capsicum, etc. These are not things that we used to see earlier.
In other words, there is a reasonable disposable income in the hands of the urban middle class. At the same time, India has huge challenges.
First of all, before I say that, let me say this. I am running 79 years. It is very important to say I am older than most politicians and definitely much older than all bureaucrats. So, whatever I say is with a sense of affection and admiration, and it is not criticism. I don’t know how long I will live. My friend Ratan Tata went away a few weeks ago. Therefore, I have no vested interest in whatever I say. All that I want is to see an India which has fulfilled the dreams of our founding fathers.
At the same time, you see 800 million Indians receiving free rations. You see free electricity being given. You see free bus rides being given. While you look at it from one perspective, these are all good things, but another perspective says that while urban India is making rapid strides, a large part of India has not benefited from all the wonderful globalisation that we have had.
Also Read | ‘Don’t believe in work-life balance’: Infosys’ Narayana Murthy says no going back on 70-hour workweek remark
So, therefore, the need of the day for us is to focus on job creation, primarily low-tech job creation.
Also, given that the disposable income of India is rather low, we have to focus on exports, like China did, and like Vietnam is doing now, and like a few other nations in East Asia are doing, because that is the only way you can create a large number of jobs, and that is the only way you can put some disposable income in the hands of people, and that is the only way that secondary and tertiary industry, like what Harsha was saying that all this Swiggy and all of that they can indeed take off. That obviously, is export oriented.
What that means is we have to become nimble. We have to learn from our competition — competitive countries. We have to take quick decisions. We have to get to a level of excellence in everything that we do definitely a higher level of excellence.
How do we do it? A lot of my European and American friends tell me that it is time for India to move from an administrative mindset to a management mindset. They tell me that administration is all about the status quo. On the other hand, management is all about vision and high aspiration. It is about achieving the plausibly impossible. It is about cost control. It is about raising people’s confidence. It is about making things happen quickly and being very competitive. It is about learning from our competitors, etc.
So maybe Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has done a brilliant job so far in terms of accelerating our economy, may want to look at whether we need more managers in the government, rather than administrators. And to do that, they perhaps may want to look at, rather than the current method of having some three, or four subjects, examinations, etc. for the IAS, he may want to look at selecting people from the various management institutes, bringing them into the government – I hope the opposition won’t have much objection as they have already raised – bring them into the government.
First get them trained at Mussourie on decision-making under uncertainty, on facing the competition, on creating competitive advantages, on being open-minded to learn from people who have performed better than us, on strategic thinking, on simulation, on workflow management, on project management and other management techniques.
My request at this old age is that Prime Minister Modi take a decision to convert the administrative mindset to a management mindset, take more and more managers, and give them an opportunity to bring speed, imagination and excellence in decision-making and implementation in the public governance system.
Also Read | Watch: Narayana Murthy sings Elvis’ Can’t Help Falling in Love, dedicates it to wife Sudha Murty
I believe India will then accelerate even more because he has a very laudable, very visionary objective, which is to reach $50 trillion by 2047. We are all with him. We want it to happen. We will do whatever he wants us to do, but without a very efficient, effective, agile, open-minded public governance system that may be somewhat difficult.
Q: Since you are talking about moving from an administrative mindset to a management mindset as far as governance is concerned, let me ask you, Donald Trump has decided to appoint Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to head a commission or a committee which will work with the government, not part of the government, but with the government to look at efficiencies across all government functions. Do you believe that that is something that we should experiment with?
A: I don’t know, because, of course, Donald Trump is now going to be the president, so it is not proper on my part to comment. Certainly, he knows much more than I do about his country, but I do think that reducing government, reducing latency of action, and reducing inefficiency, are good, whether it is America or India or Timbuktu, that is all what I can say.
For more, watch the accompanying video
