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How India grows at the grassroots – in conversation with bestselling author Subroto Bagchi >
by Madanmohan Rao [September 17, 2025]
This Saturday, on September 20, the 11th edition of the BizLitFest Bangalore is kicking off at WeWork Galaxy. Benedict Paramanand, co-founder of this business literature festival series, also launched the inaugural Hyderabad edition on August 2.
In our first preview article on BLFB 2025, we featured an exclusive interview with Ganesh Krishnan, author of Mastering Disruption: A Practical Guide to Understanding New-Age Business Models.
In our second preview article, we featured an interview with Nitin Seth, author of Human Edge in the AI Age: Eight Timeless Mantras for Success.
In our third preview article, we interviewed Arun Maira, author, Reimagining India's Economy: The Road to a More Equitable Society.
In our fourth preview article, we featured development sector professional Vandana Vasudevan, author of OTP Please! Online Buyers, Sellers and Gig Workers in South Asia.
In this preview article, we interview Subroto Bagchi, author of The Day the Chariot Moved: How India Grows at the Grassroots. The book is packed with engaging stories of leadership, governance, public policy, skill development, grassroots creativity, and social impact. His earlier book, Sell, won the CK Prahalad Best Business Book Award at BizLitFest Bangalore in 2018.
Subroto is the bestselling author of many business books, including The High Performance Entrepreneur, Go Kiss the World, Sell, and Elephant Catchers. He co-founded Mindtree in 1999, and became Chairman of the Odisha Skill Development Authority in 2016. He is now chief adviser to the government on institutional capacity building, and has worked simultaneously at the policy and implementation levels.
The book offers valuable lessons for crossover leadership in the private sector, government and social development. It is a masterful blend of stories, reflections, frames, and takeaways. It showcases the multi-layered complexity of the national development process, but is also a human tribute to grassroots changemakers.
“The ability to cross over is particularly important in today’s world,” Subroto writes. “It is a global phenomenon fuelled by a new reality that presents malleability of competencies and new global opportunities,” he adds.
The 43 chapters in the book are spread across 370 pages, and include 16 pages of colour photographs. With in-depth narratives on the ups and downs in social development, the book includes endearing and inspiring profiles such as locomotive driver Muni Tigga who was born in a tribal village, and fashion line supervisor Basanti Pradha who was born in a goatherd’s family.
In this wide-ranging interview, Subroto delves deeper into the importance of storytelling, the need for urban and rural communities to connect to each other, gender empowerment, sustainable business, resilient leadership, and much more.
Sign up here to register for the Bangalore Business Literature Festival, and listen to more insights from a range of bestselling authors!
Madan: What were some of the pleasures of writing your book – and the challenges?
Subroto: Writing a book is always a very beautiful experience. This one was particularly nice because of the people in the book whose voice rang through my mind as I was hacking the keyboard. I was able to relive the many moments of great joy that now will be forever held in one place, because of this book.
Talking of challenges, something interesting happened as I started writing it. I heard a voice from within tell me to finish the book as soon as possible and cautioned me that I may have a problem with my fingers or my eyes. I took that seriously and worked like the devil.
A week after handing over the manuscript to my editor, I had a retinal detachment! This could have truly come in the way and the challenge was checkmated by the voice within. This is difficult to explain and comprehend.
Madan: How important do you see storytelling as a skill for leaders – both for external and internal communication?
Subroto: I think it is a critical communication skill for any leader. It is particularly relevant for those who are charged with creating organisational vision. They need to build a vision for the community, and people who sign in for it must see that there is an upfitting reason for it.
Stories are also very important for those who seek to create transformational change that must be executed for a long haul. People pay attention to you when you build a narrative, explain things through your lived-in experiences, speak in the first person, give examples, and use metaphors.
Only then people pay attention – they can remember what you want from them. Memory precedes followership. People do things only when they remember what the leader wants. We underestimate how much chatter pervades the system and with all that, people become attention deficient.
In the midst of it, you stand up and say, Now let me tell you a story and everyone goes hush. Then the story replicates, it gets conveyed by others and that is how organisational memory gets built.
And finally, it is only the storytelling leader who comes across as accessible, real, credible, and relatable for people at a personal level.
Madan: What can be done to help urban communities better connect to their rural counterparts to create more business opportunities? eg. school internships, business ‘twinning’
Subroto: We need to be inclusive beyond our narrow survival and comfort considerations. We need to feel and act reasonable for them. It starts with bridging the information gap, then comes inclusion by giving time and resources.
Our connection with rural India cannot be just about business. Their job is to be the granary and our job is to consume? Their job is to send the maid, the delivery guy, and the driver – and as long as that is an endless supply, do we care?
Once we answer this question at all levels, policy making to personal realisation, things will fall in place. And how inclusive can we be? The possibilities are endless. Internships are a great idea. But there can be so many. The issue is to sustain them.
Madan: You rightly emphasise that girls should get better access to education and livelihood opportunities. How can this be achieved at scale and breadth, across the country?
Subroto: 94% of all jobs are in the unorganised sector, less than 25% of all women are in wage employment. And 94% of this 25% are in the unorganised sector. This means payments in cash, suppressed and discriminatory wages, no health and maternal benefits, and no leave. And certainly, no career movement.
Yet, 50% of Indians are women. Thus, not getting them into sustainable employment and business ownership is an urgent matter of national loss.
But there are also two other huge issues that do not get spoken about: housing for migrant, single women and safe commutes. We need a comprehensive national policy around the wage issue with the issue of housing and commute as an underlying base.
In Singapore, a lone woman can travel at midnight by public transport without getting molested. In New York, which was once the crime capital of the world, a woman can lock her shop after dusk and travel to the suburb. In NCR, unless she is in a car, she cannot.
Madan: Entrepreneurs who venture out of urban business professions and into rural development often face challenges and setbacks. What are your tips for them on how to bounce back from failure and be resilient?
Subroto: They must see themselves as agents of change and transformation. Such people must accept the system in its entirety. That is why Gandhi said, you must be the change you want to see.
The other issue is sustaining it, once you have embraced the system. Finally, comes trust. In the city, commerce is contractual. In villages trust comes first.
Madan: We are witnessing amazing developments like the rise of GenAI. How can this be made inclusive for rural communities as well?
Subroto: We need to hugely accelerate vernacular use of the Internet to make the fullest use of AI. Otherwise, it will further increase the digital divide.
Madan: India is facing increasing challenges of pollution and environmental sustainability. What should entrepreneurs do to embrace sustainability even if they are not in the green sector?
Subroto: They need to see themselves as sinners when they violate the environment; CEOs must feel personally violated when their business ambition overrides the environment.
Have you seen any kirana shop in India? Sachets of everything from shampoo to coffee to pan masala hang like garlands of the devil. Where do they end up? In the landfill. That is true of almost every product packaging. This originates from mostly large businesses.
Then there is the whole spectrum of manufacturing issues, of releasing toxic waste into the ground, into rivers. We need urgent conversation of use of fertilizers and pesticides and see their impact on cancer.
CEOs must be Warriors of the Planet beyond engaging the Big 4 for writing sustainability reports as supplements to balance sheets.
Madan: Many founders want to launch NGOs and social enterprises instead of for-profit companies. What advice would you give them in addition to the tips and frameworks in your book?
Subroto: You need not seek profits, but seek self-sufficiency. Do not live off donations and CSR funds. Know that the complexity and challenges of starting, sustaining, accountability and expanding a not-for-profit are the same as building a for-profit business.
In India, we have the world’s largest number of NGOs. There is one for every 400 Indians. But I find many NGOs and so-called social enterprises are a parking lot for very intelligent people who do not like accountability.
Yet, there are some great ones. Benchmark yourself with them. Be tough on yourself in the absence of a market place that rewards focus and demands efficiency.
Madan: You have shared deep insights into the transformations happening in Odisha. Which other states have caught your eye in terms of progressive grassroots developments?
Subroto: I have been very impressed with Tamil Nadu for the all-of-society engagement with human development. I admire Kerala for their approach to issues like health and education.
I admire Maharashtra for giving women, particularly urban women, equal voice. I admire Gujarat for bringing women into commerce and business, thanks to movements like Anand and long-acting agents of change like SEWA.
Madan: As startups scale, what are some recommendations you have on how founders should work with governments?
Subroto: Not every founder needs to engage with the government. The business bodies, from FICCI, to CII to NASSCOM, have well-oiled programmes that we should become active parts of.
But here is something fundamental: pay your taxes right. That is the first step towards nation building and supporting the government. We need to build a culture of compliance from Day One.
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