Key initiatives for transforming national innovation systems from grassroots perspective: a note presented to national innovation council, Jan 12, 201

Key initiatives for transforming national innovation systems from grassroots perspective: a note presented to national innovation council, Jan 12, 2011 anil k gupta

Dissemination:

1. The old axiom, seeing is believing still holds true. Today, a large number of organisations have facilities for field trials and demonstrations. But the convergence is missing. In the mobile telephony, different channels such as television, internet, phone and other services like GPS, etc., are getting integrated. The results are visible. But, in agriculture, the extension centres of one public institution won’t let various other institutions to showcase innovative solutions to the farmers problems at their research and extension farm. There is a case for convergence in these facilities as well. The commitment should not be to the turf but to the delivery of solutions to people.

In each district, there should be a District Innovation Gallery or Forum where various innovations can be showcased. KVKs [Krishi Vigyan Kendra] can be the site of such exhibitions.

2. Public media has almost given up showcasing the public interest innovations regularly. There ought to be regular slots on All India Radio and Door Darshan for sharing information on innovation so that in the regions where no other channel reaches, the message of Decade of Innovation declared by Hon’ble President reaches with a very practical and operational content.

A regular programme, if not every day, at least every week at prime time for sharing the information about innovative experiments being done around the country is necessary to create the right mindset and celebrate the Decade of Innovation.

3. We should mobilize the support of one lac post offices and even larger number of postmen to scout and disseminate innovations in every nook and corner of the country by involving NIF and Honey Bee Network. This will help map the creative mind of the country and also create awareness about existing innovations.

Mobilising postal network for scouting and dissemination will create a foolproof presence of the National Innovation System in every village of the country.

4. More than four crore people travel by Indian Railways every day. In the long distance train, there is an opportunity to offer courses for skill development and also reinforce the concept of life long learning. At the same time, dissemination of ideas about innovation and scouting of the same can also be done through idea boxes at various stations and in trains. In the short distance train, idea competitions can generate lot of interest and people can sms their solutions to various challenges and submit ideas for other innovations. The mindset has to be changed. We have to shed the habit of living with problems unsolved indefinitely.

Minds on move through Indian railways are likely to be more receptive for continuing education, skill development, scouting and dissemination of ideas, innovations and outstanding traditional knowledge practices. This will create traction for innovations on day to day basis and strategies will be dynamically positioned, retailored and delivered involving users/commuters in design and delivery.

5. Reaching students in municipal and government schools to harness the creativity of young ideators and inventors. Within four years of IGNITE competition by NIF, the entries increased from a few hundred to over 2000 from 160 districts in 2010. However, most of these were from CBSE schools or Navodaya Vidyalayas. If Ministry of HRD is brought on board, one can involve municipal and government schools in a big way. The science exhibitions predominantly have demonstration of known concepts though there are always a few innovative ideas. Perhaps one can reach mass level students through state education boards and Navodaya Vidyalaya system.

Harnessing the ideas of young inventors, innovators and ideators from schools in each block of the country will lay the foundation for developing future leaders of innovation movement in the country.

6. SRISTI’s initiative of pooling technology projects by over 350,000 final year technology students from over 500 colleges has led to the techpedia.in platform having over 100,000 projects. Gujarat Technical University in collaboration with this initiative has decided to create Navsarjan Sankul [Innovation Clusters] by mapping colleges to the MSME clusters. Ironically, minimum number of, say chemical engineering students are enrolled in colleges around heavy concentration of chemical industry. There is a great deal of rethinking required in linking higher education with the needs of small scale industry and grassroots communities. In the next three to six months, techpedia.in would have another 50,000 projects besides the top five from each college of Gujarat. There is a need to replicate this model in each state. Rajasthan Technical University has already written to us for similar linkage. Efforts are on in other states also. Scouting of projects and dissemination of innovations will also promote greater connectedness to the societal problems. The originality and innovation quotient of the technology projects may have inevitably and irreversibly gone up because doing something, which has already been done, is not going to be easy. The cost and speed at which innovations have started emerging is unimaginable. This is a good illustration of MLM and Gandhian engineering.

Scaling up the techpedia.in as a national portal through public-private and civil society partnership is inevitable to trigger a distributed inclusive model of innovations.

Testing/Calibration/Validation and Value addition:

7. The support system for validation and value addition needs to be augmented by obliging every public R&D institution to set aside resources for testing, calibrating and value addition in the ideas and innovations of grassroots startups and innovators.

There should be a national fund for testing and validation of innovative technologies by individuals at public testing facilities. This will speed up the mind to market journey for innovations from formal and informal sectors.

8. The ITI and Polytechnics besides other technical colleges should provide their facilities under a national programme for distributed innovation management under NInC [National Innovation Council] for fabrication and other value addition to the grassroots innovators and other individual innovators.

There should be establishment of, first in each district college or polytechnic and later in each block, a fab lab to promote decentralized community fabrication centres for prototyping innovative products and farm machinery. Similar facilities may have to be created for herbal extraction in tribal areas.

9. There should be a dedicated young innovator fund at platforms like techpedia.in to encourage technology students in engineering, agriculture, medicine, pharmacy, biotechnology, etc., to set up at least 10,000 startups in 2012. We should double these numbers every year if we have to usher in knowledge and innovation based entrepreneurial revolution.

A need for dedicated startup promotion fund at techpedia.in or at any other platform to encourage students to set up innovative technology based enterprises.

10. The students in technical institutions should be encouraged to join hands with the startups so that the initial costs of startups goes down and the students get real life experience. For the student startups, we should have at par placement opportunities for them upto two years so that if their enterprise does not take off, they can come back for their employment.

The tie up between startups and the students must be encouraged and in some cases engineered to nourish the eco system for innovation.

11. Members of various science and technology academies should be encouraged to mentor the startups from technical point of view. Similarly, the industry associations should mentor such startups and students working with them or on their own ideas. SRISTI has taken an initiative to map the MSMEs with the engineering colleges in collaboration with technical universities. Once this takes off, the connect between the projects of more than 15 lac technology students and small-scale industry and informal sector will get cemented.

National Mentor Network to be strengthened for mentoring startups in different parts of the country for proprietary or open source social technologies.

Education:

12. Incorporation of lessons on innovation journey of common people in the textbooks will go a long way in moulding the minds. It is ironic that there is not a single such lesson in any of the textbooks as yet.

NCERT, AICTE and UGC ought to be persuaded to accord due place to innovations in the existing textbooks if additional books are difficult to introduce to begin with. Online multi language, multimedia resources also should be generated for the purpose.

13. The educational system in medical, pharmacy, agriculture, biotechnology and other fields of technology education in addition to engineering have to incorporate the project work on persistent unsolved problems of common people. Honey Bee Network has made a list of several such problems, which should be posed, to the students in different streams to challenge them for generating solutions.

Attractive challenge awards must be introduced to incentivise the engagement of bright minds with social problems. An inventory of pending social problems for different regions must be posed to regional technical institutions for a time bound resolution.

India is poised to become an inclusive society through social, technological, educational, cultural and institutional innovations. We have nothing much but only our conventional mindset to lose. Grassroots to Global ( g2G) will trigger a new role for India to spread the genius at grassroots for people in other developing countries as well.

# posted by anil @ 5:09 PM 0 comments

Insular leaders: Indifferent followers

Insular leaders: Indifferent followers
Creating market for merit

With increase in popular consciousness and political awareness, the social expectations about the institutional performance are rising enormously. There seems to be a crisis in many institutions which otherwise have been respected for their integrity and involvement with larger social discourse. There are several sources of this crisis: the leaders have discovered lately that their spines were actually very weak, they could not take the load of expectations; many of them have taken recourse to buying peace through compromise, collusion and connivance of the powers that be. Some of them got into leadership position through patronage rather than merit. Even if the patrons don’t demand rent, they prefer to use that system to build following. When the merit suffers, many stakeholders keep quiet either out of fear or on account of collusion or sheer indifference. The institutional decline then does not take much effort. If institution after institution go through this process, the performance that society expects will obviously not follow.

How do we break the trend and create market for merit? It goes without saying that institution building process requires considerable investment in creating market for merit. The dissent and diversity are generally disliked by the leaders who are not confident of themselves. Any leader who does not encourage dissent and defiance closes the feedback channels that can help in learning, growing and sharing the wisdom. At political level, if we compare different cabinets in the last six decades, we notice that proportion of people who could stand their ground has gone down. However, the coalition politics came to rescue and helped sustain democracy by creating conditions for tolerance of dissent and disagreement. In academic institutions, one can find a similar trend of decline though situation is much more optimistic because base DNA of democracy and merit still exists among many elite institutions. Sometimes, the members of such institutions take recourse to such collective measures which may cause more harm than good. But, if leaders remain insular and many followers become indifferent, then the currency for cooperation among the rest may become popular. The unionization will inevitably follow. Mrs. Thatcher broke the back of old left parties by providing incentives in the form of stock holding to the members of those parties. Once the middle class becomes entrepreneurial and finds allurements for its greed or ambitions, it becomes difficult to persist with only ideological and value based institutional processes. The hurdles for earning money can be lowered and effort for more intensive achievements can be diluted. What else is left for institutions then to strive for. Since majority always prefers mediocrity, the market for merit becomes weaker.

One way to reverse the trend would be that political leaders realize the damage they may cause to the long term growth potential of the institutions and the economy by imposing subservient and mediocre leaders. Ravi Matthai used to say that institutions are best served by reluctant leaders, i.e., the people who don’t need positions but who should be courted and persuaded for positions. Because positions need them. I think this principle still holds. Unless institutions of higher learning, other regulatory or policy bodies are headed by people who don’t need those positions, market for merit will not become stronger. Another way to achieve the similar results is to share the information about the credentials of the top achievers. If none of them is craving for leadership position, then it says a lot about the culture of compromise prevalent in the system. Today not many self-respecting people would find apex positions in different institutions worthy of their time. The transaction costs of meritocratic governance have gone up enormously. A genuine leader is the one who allows herself to be led by the followers and does not hesitate in taking unpopular decisions when the situation so demands. Increasing authoritarian streak among the leaders reflects their timidity and inability to tolerate the merit. There are also leaders who join ranks with the indifferent followers and just pass their time. They are only leaders by position and not by the respect of those who have distinguished themselves.

May be I am asking for a moral revolution. But, the trends around the world seem to indicate that individuals can and will make a difference. Distributed leadership will come about. Individuals with their own command on conscience will create new benchmarks that will sweep the culture of collusion and compromise away from the system. Wikileaks created one such benchmark. Tunisia has created another. The whistle blowers around the world are taking control of the situation when insular leaders and indifferent followers have colluded to shortchange the society. But, relying on such whistle blowers for correcting the system and reinforcing the market for merit is a very costly process. Can we not collectively reflect and create public paschatap [remorse] among such leaders. Society expected much more than what such leaders have delivered. It is time they fade out gracefully and allow more accountable, accessible and appreciable meritocratic structures to emerge. Nehru had written once an article in Mainstream using pseudonym criticizing the emergence of authoritarian streaks in his character. We need much more catharsis and self-criticism among the leaders for creating and reinforcing market for merit.

A bundle of sticks is far stronger than a bigger bundle of spineless people in any institution --
Anil K Gupta

# posted by anil @ 9:21 PM 0 comments

even corporates now realise what i have been saying for years

GE's 'innovation barometer' shows corporate focus on human need

GE discusses survey results at Davos

Richard Lee, Staff Writer

Published: 10:26 p.m., Friday, January 28, 2011

• 
  John Krenicki, vice chairman of General Electric Co. (GE), speaks during a session on the first day of the World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual Meeting 2011 in Davos, Switzerland, on Wednesday, Jan. 26, 2011. The World Economic Forum in Davos will be attended by a record number of chief executive officers, with a total of 2,500 delegates attending the five-day meeting that starts in the ski resort today. Photographer: Tomohiro Ohsumi/Bloomberg *** Local Caption *** John Krenicki Photo: Bloomberg, Tomohiro Ohsumi / © 2011 Bloomberg Finance LP | Buy This Photo

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Timing is crucial in the corporate world, and Fairfield-based General Electric Co., thinks it found the ideal time to release its first "GE Global Innovation Barometer" as its representatives attend the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

The barometer, an independent survey of 1,000 business executives in 12 countries, found that the greatest innovations in the future will be those that help address human need, more so than those that simply create the most profit. The report outlines a new landscape for innovation in the 21st century, placing an increased premium on addressing local needs, marshaling the creativity of individuals and smaller organizations and forging strategic partnerships.

The study was commissioned by GE and done by StrategyOne to identify drivers and deterrents of innovation and to analyze perceptions around innovation challenges.

Companies must embrace a new innovation paradigm that promotes collaboration between all levels of corporate players to foster creativity, said Beth Comstock, chief marketing officer and senior vice president of GE, a forum panelist.

The survey revealed that 77 percent of executives who responded believe that the greatest innovations of the 21st century will be those that help address human needs, such as improving health quality, access to education, environmental quality or enhancing energy security -- more than profit, she said.

"This study illustrates that the rules around innovation are changing, and that companies, like ours, will need to evolve our strategy in order to stay competitive, drive growth and contribute meaningfully to the economy," Comstock said in a statement.

Ninety-five percent of executives said innovation is the main lever for a more competitive national economy, and 88 percent agreed that innovation is the best way to create jobs in their country. Eighty-six percent said that 21st-century innovation is about partnerships as opposed to the success of a single organization.

Conducted between Dec. 10 and Jan. 14, the survey asked executives to name the three countries they view as leading innovators. The United States topped the list with 67 percent, followed by Germany (44 percent), Japan (43 percent) and China (35 percent).

Christopher Bruhl, president and chief executive officer of the Business Council of Fairfield County, credited GE for commissioning the survey and sharing the results on an international scale.

"The reported findings are consistent with what we hear from the global, national and local business leaders we work with," he said.

The countries included in the research are Australia, Brazil, China, Germany, India, Israel, Japan, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Sweden and the U.S.

The response rate was between 12 and 15 percent, depending on the country, with most respondents having at least 500 employees. The questionnaire was developed by StrategyOne with GE input, said StrategyOne spokesman Antoine Harary, adding the data was processed with no input from GE. The survey firm used a random approach and no GE client list.

Read more: http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/default/article/GE-s-innovation-barometer-shows-corporate-focus-984362.php#ixzz1CUdNwJlE

# posted by anil @ 9:19 PM 0 comments

coping creatively with climate complexity

Scarcity of resources often makes people despondent. People learn to adjust, adapt or just succumb. But, sometimes they transcend the adversity through a creative innovation. Let me share one story in which the scarcity of water triggered a very interesting innovation in cotton.

Vikas Shinde and his wife Pramila own nearly half a hectare of land in a village named Pingalwada in dry part of Jalgoaon, Maharashtra. The water table is low and they cannot afford a submersible pump. Vikas has many innovations to his credit, one of which was a very interesting way of extracting groundwater from a bore of eight inches. He made a stand, attached a pulley and developed a contraption using motor cycle. A pipe of 6 inches diameter will descend in the bore and with the help of motorcycle based pulley system it will be lifted up containing 15 litres of water. The pipe had a one-way valve such that when it was lifted the water will not drain out. He designed an arrangement having a hook on hich a pipe will rest, the valve will open and water will drain into the irrigation channel for irrigating cotton crop. There was one problem which this method will not address.

In the month of May, when water is very scarce Pramila got an idea. She took nursery bags and grew cotton seedlings in those bags. These cotton seedlings were irrigated with limited water.When the rains came in June, every farmer will sow the crop at that time, but in Pramila and Vikas’s field cotton seedlings will be transplanted. Not only water requirement went down, but the productivity of the crop increased. Complementary innovations by husband and wife generated a new hope for overcoming uncertainty of rains, shortage of water and increasing production.

In the wake of climate change uncertainities are going to increase. One would need many more innovations of this kind, all over the country, to widen the choices despite limited resources. Innovations borne out of constrained environments are not only frugal, affordable but also sustainable. But, neither this Copenhagen summit took note of grassroot innovations, nor the Indian government ‘s climate study team thinks of learning from such creative people and communities. While governments can remain indifferent, local commmunities will develop their own ways of dealing with climate complexities and uncertainities. Honey Bee database has a huge reservoir of such coping strategies waiting to be tapped.

# posted by anil @ 4:57 PM 1 comments

Letter to farmers in north dakota suffering from the monopoly of monsanto in agriculture

A response to blog posts like this one.

Well, you have an alternative. Read up the Honeybee database on sustainable agricultural innovations available at sristi.org and honeybee.org.

You can use the open source example of farmer-based solutions to your problems. Please try these out and write to us.

For example in cotton growing, you can plant okra around the cotton crop as a border crop. It belongs to the same family and will attract pests and save the cotton. If the problem persists, spray one kilogram of jaggery (raw sugar mixed with 15 litres of water). Black ants will come and eat away the eggs of harmful pests. This remedy costs so little even if you fail. But if you succeed, your blessings will be our reward.

In Gujarat, farmers made their own Bt cotton by crossing the parent lines with local varieties. In India, there is no patent on genes and hence nobody can do anything about it.

- Anil Gupta

Prof. Anil Gupta is our latest addition to the Mentor Blog.

# posted by anil @ 8:35 PM 5 comments

Vinoba Bhave on Gandhi

Here is Vinoba Bhave sharing his thoughts on Gandhi:


When, still a child, I was drawn by Bengal and the Himalayas. I cherished dreams of going to these places. In Bengal it was the upsurge symbolized by Vande Mataram that called me, in the Himalayas it was the Jnana-Yoga. When in 1916 I left home I wanted at the same time to go both to the Himalayas and to Bengal. The city of Kashi was on the way to both and chance took me there.

Gandhiji was present at the inaugural function of the Banaras Hindu University. I saw the newspaper report of the spirited speech he had made on the occasion, to an audience consisting of renowned scholars, Rajas and Maharajas, and above all the viceroy. I was deeply affected. Here was a man, I felt, who wanted at once to achieve for the country political freedom as well as spiritual progress. That was after my own heart. I wrote to him, asking some questions. When he answered I asked more questions. This time Gandhiji enclosed the rule of his ashram and said, "Nothing much will be gained by correspondence. It would be better for you to come over."

And my feet turned towards Gandhi. Seemingly I had gone neither to the Himalayas nor to Bengal. But in my heart I had arrived at both the places simultaneously. With Gandhiji I found the peace of the Himalayas and the resurgence of Bengal.

I saw Gandhiji for the first time on June 7, 1916, at his Kochrab Ashram. God in His infinite mercy placed me at his feet. When I examine my heart and my life today I find that both are firmly established at Gandhiji’s feet. I cannot say how far I have been able to put into practice his teachings, his training. He himself would not know and neither would anyone else. Only God knows. This much, however I can say without hesitation: what little of his teaching I could make my own, whatever specially appealed to me, I have been incessantly striving with great care to practice - indeed with much greater care than when Gandhiji was alive. I always have the feeling of Gandhiji’s presence before me, behind me and above me.

I often recollect Shankaracharya’s saying that the greatest boons a man may have are three: being born in human form, a craving for mukti and patronage of a great man.

Thinking of this utterance of Shankara my heart leaps with joy. I am indeed blessed that I was born a man, was bitten by the bug of mukti and was privileged to enjoy the company of so great a man as Gandhi. It is one thing to read in books the word of saints and mahatmas and quite another to live in companionship with them, to work under their guidance, to watch their life. It was my great fortune that this was granted to me.

I do not know whether Gandhiji ever put me to test. But I did, without his knowing it, test him thoroughly; had he been found wanting I would not have stayed with him. But if he tested me, whatever shortcomings he might have noticed in me, he kept me with him.

Bapu was never tired of saying that he was imperfect, incomplete. It was true. He did not know how to say an untrue thing. He was a votary of truth. I have come across many great men who imagine that they are muktas, perfect men. I was never drawn to any of them. But the pull that Bapu, who considered himself imperfect, exercised on me, was unique. I have never been influenced by anyone the way I was by Bapu.

I met Bapu and at once fell in love with him. That was because of the unity of his inner and outer state. Then again, it was Bapu who initiated me into the philosophy of Karma-Yoga. True, it is explained in the Gita. But I saw it’s applications only in Bapu’s life. It was here that the karma-yoga of the Gita was most clearly illustrated. The Gita enumerates the signs of a man of steadfast intellect. How many are there whom the description would fit? Bapu had all the characteristics of such a man.

It was my privilege to work with him and live with such a man. It is said that those who live under the shelter of the great become stunted in their growth, even as plants under the shadow of a large tree become crippled for want of nourishment of which the trees deprives them. But the analogy of a tree does not fit great men. Those living under their wings are like calves in a cowshed. While a tree sucks up the nourishment that would otherwise sustain the vegetation under it, a cow, herself subsisting on grass, provides milk to her calf, which grows and prospers under her loving care. This was the experience of those who placed themselves under the wing of Bapu. If one was bad, one became good on coming to him; if one was timid, one became fearless. Through him thousands earned glory, yet he considered himself the humblest of all.

When in 1916 I went to him I was stripling of twenty-one. I went as a boy eager to learn. All those close to me know that at the time I was sadly lacking in what is called manners or polite behaviour. I have been by nature a sort of wild animal. It was Bapu who put down the flames of anger and lust that raged in me. His benedictions continuously rained on me. Whatever I am today I owe to Bapu. He turned an uncouth person like me into a servant of the people.

What I saw of the mode of life at the Ashram taught me a great many things. I realized that life is one and indivisible. Bapu never conceived himself in the role of a guru nor did he consider anyone as his disciple. Similarly, I am neither anyone’s guru nor anyone’s disciple, although I attach great importance to the institution of guru. One can conceive gurus who can transform their disciple by a mere look, a word or a touch. But still it is only a possibility. In reality, I know of no such guru. Without dwelling at greater length on the guru disciple theme I shall only say that what I learnt at the feet of Bapu is all that is still serving me. My bhoodan and Gramdan wanderings have behind them the sadhana I carried on long ago at the Ashram. The Sadhana I did before joining the Ashram was purely emotional. Then came the Sadhana at the Ashram and I acquired new eyes. This was a blessing from Bapu.

After going to Bapu I spent thirty-two years in Sadhana. My thinking and reading continued to be spiritual but the sadhana was not divorced from activity. I observe political events. I kept myself informed of the developments in the social field. Whatever Bapu wrote served to guide me. I studied his ideas with minute care and endeavored as best I could to act according to them. Thus I found the subtle way of ahimsa.

There is a beautiful sloka about Bhagavata Dharma, which applies equally to the way of ahimsa discovered by Bapu. The sloka says: The Bhagavata Dharma is such that a man pursuing it with faith, will never fall into error. It is a way on which a man may walk or run with eyes closed and will not fall.

This is the beauty, the simplicity of the way Bapu has showed us. If we are to establish a Sarvodaya social order, this is the way we have to take.

[Excerpt from the book, 'Vinoba on Gandhi']

# posted by livemoments @ 6:25 PM 0 comments

Gandhi's Higher Standard of Leadership

It's Gandhi's birthday today. In perhaps a statement of our times, I was first reminded of him when I saw him on the homepage of Google. :) Then, I thought of my dear friend Jayesh Patel at the Gandhi Ashram, who is an exemplar of Gandhian values; and at some point, I happened upon an unread book sitting on my desk -- A Higher Standard of Leadership: Lessons from the Life of Gandhi, by Keshavan Nair.

In so many ways, Keshavan Nair's first chapter really articulates all that I am feeling today ... so here it is:

In putting forward a path to a higher standard of leadership, there is no greater exemplar than Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. Gandhi spent more than fifty years in public life and is best known for leading hundreds of millions of people against one of the greatest empires in the history of the World.

In contrast to the other political leaders and military commanders of his time -- men such as Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Churchill, Roosevelt, de Gaulle, Eisenhower, Montgomery, Patton and MacArthur -- Gandhi wore no resplendent uniform, commanded no armies, and held no government position. Instead he preached and -- more importantly -- lived the gospel of truth and nonviolence and demonstrated through his life of service the oneness of humanity. He reminded the world that the human spirit is indomitable and that courage and love are more powerful than force. The world acknowledged his special place when the United Nations flew its flag at half-mast when he was assassinated. He is the only individual with no connection to any government or international organization for whom this has been done.

Gandhi had many of the qualities we associate with a successful leaders. In addition to courage and determination, he could sustain high energy level for extended periods, he was decisive, he had great interpersonal skills, he was thoughtful but action oriented, and he paid great attention to the details of implementation.

Gandhi's life was not governed by policies; it was governed by principles and values. The best political leaders have their country as the source of passion. Business leaders have as their passion the organization, whether it is through customers, products, or technology. Gandhi's life was driven by his religion: truth and nonviolence and life of service to others. When a journalist asked Gandhi for a message for the United States, especially for African Americans, Gandhi responsded, "My life is its own message."

The lessons from Gandhi's life challenge our beliefs about the standard of leadership -- beliefs that many of us have come to accept as necessary for success. While most leaders identify with symbols of power to elevate themselves above the people they lead, Gandhi symbolized the people he was trying to serve. He tried to be like them with his lion cloth and his commitment to voluntary poverty. He symbolized service rather than power.

Gandhi believed in a single standard of conduct in public and private life -- a standard founded on integrity derived from the absolute values of truth and nonviolence. He believed that individuals must have ideals and try to live up to them, and he demonstrated that an idealist could be practical and effective. His claim, however, was to integrity, not infallibility. He made his share of mistakes but was not afraid to acknowledge them. He did not strive for consistency except in his quest for the truth.

As all policies, strategies, and laws ultimately have an impact on people or the environment, Gandhi believed moral principles had to be included in setting goals, selecting strategies, and making decisions. He worked for the betterment of all people so they could enjoy freedom from fear and exploitation.

Some of Gandhi's ideas may seem irrelevant today -- applicable only to his time and place. But on the fundamental values of truth, nonviolence and service, he had a message for the ages. He asked us to reject not only physical violence, but violence to the spirit. It becomes more self-evident every day, that if we do not embrace the ideal of nonviolence, societies all over the world will deteriorate to the point where life will be intolerable.

Today we talk about controlling physical violence with more violence and controlling spiritual violence with laws. Maybe its necessary. But I believe that the long-term solution is to put before us, especially the young, the ideal of nonviolence of the brace. We need a new heroic ideal: the brave, the truthful, nonviolence individual who is in the service of humanity, resists injustice and exploitation, and leads by appealing to our ideals and our spirit. Such a heroic ideal is embodied in Gandhi.

Gandhi's life point the way to a higher standard of leadership in which integrity based on a single standard of conduit is central, a spirit of service is imperative, and decisions and actions are bound by moral principles.

May we all be the change we wish to see in the world!

# posted by livemoments @ 9:20 PM 0 comments