The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Coimbatore News : Managers should help to bring about social changes: N. Ram

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Dec 24, 2004

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Coimbatore

Managers should help to bring about social changes: N. Ram

By Our Staff Reporter

The Editor-in-Chief of The Hindu , N. Ram (second from left), presenting a Lifetime Achievement Award to the chairman of Lakshmi Mills, G.K. Sundaram, at the golden jubilee celebrations of the Coimbatore Management Association in Coimbatore on Thursday. Looking on are the president of the association, P.M. Jagatheesan (left), the secretary, R. Nandagopal (second from right), and the director, All-India Management Association, Uma Oberoi. -- Photo: K. Ananthan

COIMBATORE, DEC. 23. Managers can put pressure on the system of governance to bring about solutions to various problems in society.

While ethical practices are needed in business houses to set an example to others, they should also work for changes that benefit society, the Editor-in-Chief of The Hindu , N. Ram, said here today.

"When many wrong things happen around us why do people not speak out against them? Managers of the industry should address these instead of asking `why should I take a risk.' There has to be freedom from fear. The vast majority has the attitude of shutting shop instead of speaking out. One wondered why the intelligentsia did not speak out."

Inaugurating the golden jubilee celebrations of the Coimbatore Management Association (CMA) and conferring the CMA's `Lifetime Achievement Award' on its founder-president and chairman of Lakshmi Mills, G.K. Sundaram, Mr. Ram said corporate houses and managers had the responsibility of introducing certain approaches in business that would have a positive impact on society.

Pointing out that freedom of expression was the major advantage in India, he, however, said blocking of vital information caused an adverse impact on the economy and society.

Quoting Nobel Laureate and developmental economist Amartya Sen, he said society paid a heavy price when information got blocked, especially during calamities.

As for one not keeping oneself informed of the truth, Mr. Ram pointed out that certain sections that were widely acclaimed even in the media came to grief in the last general elections.

"They paid a heavy price for neglecting mass deprivation. If you do not know what is happening around you, the entire system or power collapses. Information on corruption and environmental degradation should flow unblocked. We in the Press know how it is when freedom of speech or expression is suppressed. It has a chilling effect."

Code of conduct

Asking the industry how much focus was given to business ethics, he said there were instances of malpractice at the top having brought down huge enterprises and ruined stockholders — a crisis brought about by a simple inability to distinguish the right from the wrong and failure to introduce safeguards.

"Journalism does not have a code of conduct. Ours is not even considered a profession like medicine or law that have a code of conduct. But a balance is struck between primacy of editorial content and independence and market pressures."

Lauding organisations such as the Rotary and Lions for their contribution to polio eradication and eye care, Mr. Ram said it was not enough if these bodies alone worked for society. Business houses too should contribute their mite.

It was sad that the country did not have a law that made education compulsory.

Despite this, there was still excellence in the field of education. "Imagine the achievements that could have been made if education had been made compulsory. In some States, half the girls are not sent to school and yet our intelligentsia has not woken up."

Over the last one-and-a-half decades, divisive politics had led to minority and majority communalism feeding on each other. Though the Constitution did not discriminate on the basis of religion and did not allow use of the divisive approach for political gains, the underlying principle in the Constitution was followed only in the breach.

When a religious leader was arrested, one section asked how it could be done. However, letters from the people on certain incidents only pointed to their firm opinion that all were equal before the law.

Now, it was good period in politics. There was relative or reasonable calm. But there was no room for complacency.

The time was right to work for a healthy economy. It was time to consolidate and not be lulled into a sense of over security.

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