The System

Complex Systems, Social Change

Explores how complex adaptive systems theory applies to social transformation, policy-making, and societal evolution. Understanding interconnectedness, feedback loops, and emergent properties in social structures.

Reading Ideas

Time for triple-loop thinking? Are we asking the right questions?
The Purpose of Platforms and Public Utilities
A Democratic Citizen's Duty to Protest
A Caring Society
Equity must underpin Energy Transition Policy
A New Blueprint for the Indian Economy
Capitalism, Socialism, Democracy and the End of History
Farmers Incomes and Environmental Sustainability
The Limits of Technology: Man's Arrogance vs the Power of Nature
A Feminine View Can Make the World Much Better
The Indigo Crisis Reveals the Need to Reform Corporate Governance
Rural Transformation and a New Economics
Bill Gates has changed his mind about climate change
India's Quest for Strategic Autonomy
India has lost competitive advantage to China since 1991
India is the Most Innovative Country in the World
What We the People want Now
A Circular Economy for More Sustainable and Inclusive Growth
A Country is not a Corporation; Social Enterprise is not Business
The Future of Work in Ageing Societies: The Demographic Timebomb
The US Has Never Supported Fair Trade
The Value of the Work Women Do
The 21st Century Economy is Unfair to Poor People and Nations-2
The Economy is not Fair to Less Powerful People and Nations-1
India's Economic Strategy must keep the Big Picture in Mind
Make in India to make India's economy stronger
WHEN WILL MODERN ECONOMIES LEARN TO VALUE HUMAN BEINGS?
AI May Push Humans to the Sidelines
Reimagining India's Public Sector: A Blueprint for Transformation
Women, Families, and Caring
Improving the Economy for Everyone
Techno-optimism over AI is crowding out concerns of equity
A Time to Re-regulate, not to De-regulate
Artificial Intelligence, Jobs, and the Future
In What Way should the Economy be Reformed?
AI cannot Re-form India's Aspirational and Frustrated Economy
Time to Think for Ourselves about Ourselves
Dr. Manmohan Singh's Social Charter for Business Leaders
How India's economy can catch up with that of China
Reflecting together on the sands of time
Rethinking the purpose of economic policy
AI, Capitalism, and Ethics
India, the Tatas, and Ratan
The Values that Govern Us-Part 1
The Values that Govern Us-Part 2
Money power trumps human values
The Washington Consensus has ended and it won't be mourned
Poly-crisis highlights limits of global economic models
Scenarios of India's future
Tatas the Nation-builders
"If he works for Tatas he must be telling the Truth"
Local Solutions are Key to Global Challenges
Bazaar and Sarkar have pushed Samaj out of the Indian state
Realigning Bazaar, Sarkar, and Samaj
Listen to the People Left Behind
Old Thinking in a New Tank
Localisation is the key to equitable and sustainable growth
Viksit Bharat needs a new paradigm
Putting the Wind beneath the Indian Economy's Sails
The Value of a Human Life
CARING: The Economics and Ethics of Aging Societies
Family and Factory Economics
Has climate science got lost in carbon?
Justice for All Requires Listening to All
Killing Nature to Increase Wealth
The Laws of Systems for Justice
Provide a Visible Hand: Put Humanity into Capitalism
Safeguarding human dignity: practicing humanity
Systems Science for a Better Future
Capitalism and Democracy: Corporations and Communities
A Better Way to Shape Our Future
Fixing Prices in an Unfair World
Changing the Growth Paradigm
A World on the Edge: An Ode to Books, JLF
Civil Society Must Reform Itself
Finding Leaders Who Improve the World for Everyone
Systems in Transition: Reimagining Systems Science
A New Economics for Inclusive Growth
The World Needs New Ideas of Progress
Gandhiji's advice to young managers and old policy-makers
The Toxic Soil of GDP Driven Growth
Transforming Capitalism to Make the World Better for Everyone
How Capitalism corrupts Democracy
The Wisdom and Resilience of Older Women: Five African stories
Reinventing institutions fit for the 21st century
Will the G20 make the world better for everyone
India's Challenges and Options
REPAIRING THE TORN FABRIC OF DEMOCRACY
Think local to solve global
How to change the economic paradigm?
Human beings are India's assets: Treat them kindly
Setting the G20 agenda: Bringing more Equity into Economies
A new Economics for a new World
Women and workers will bring the world together
Crony capitalism is baked into the capitalist market economy
Giving common people control of their own communities
India's Century: How to drive sustainable, inclusive growth?
Human values must replace money values in economics
A Union of Civil Society Organizations
HOW WILL WE MOVE INTO A NEW PARADIGM OF SOCIO-ECONOMIC POLICY?
A New Paradigm for Economic Policy
Laws cannot make a country democratic
The Moral and Intellectual Crises in India's Economic Policies
Too much global trade harms the Earth: Rethinking economics
A Conflict of Business and Social Values
India and the G20: Changing the paradigm of progress
Scenarios for the Future of India and the World
The power within fireflies can improve the world for everyone
The Wisdom of Systems Thinking and Community Cooperation
The Shape of the Indian Economy Must Change
Sustainable movements of change by the people for the people
The case for systems thinking in tackling malnutrition
Reconnecting Business Enterprises with Society
REPAIRING A DISORDERED WORLD BOTTOM UP
India@100: Reaching our Tryst with Destiny
Science and Economics Need a Reset, and New Conversations
Movements for transforming systems on scale
Solutions by the people, for the people
Business corporations are not good citizens of society
Tata's Leadership Experiment
Gorbachev, Macro-economics, and Gandhi
NITI Aayog: Cooperative Federalism Fillip or Failure?
Hard truths about India's labour reforms
My letter to my grandson on India@75
CHANGING THE COURSE OF LABOR REFORMS
A sound industrial policy must guide India's trade policy
Sharing power with next generations
Thinking about thinking: putting the soul in the machine
New Ways Needed to Solve Global Problems
Focus on creating not just growth but more "good jobs"
The Incompleteness of Scientific Knowledge: Returning to Wisdom
A New Science for Global Governance
How the global machine could regain its long lost soul
People, not courts, shape norms
What law will rule India@75?
Bharat: One Country, One Destiny
A new economics is emerging: it must
Counting Daisies?
Ways of Mass Dialogue: the WMD We Want
India’s role in a disordered world
The mood of Indian voters
Why even Good Companies can do Bad things
What Money Can't Buy
Journeys of Learning and Change
Russia's war: the impracticality of violence
Rebuild India the Gandhian way
Framing the political debate for a new economy
The politics of wealth creation
Liberal economics creates illiberal societies
Zoom meetings: Have they helped or harmed?
Re-injecting democracy into capitalism for a more humane society
Becoming a civil society
Enterprises For the People By the People
Industry leaders and country builders
A WHITE TOUCH TO A REFRESHED GREEN REVOLUTION
The power of the local to create impact on scale
First reform the process of making economic reforms
The Big Cop Out in Glasgow
Clues to Living Well
The Complications Humans Create in Complex Systems
The Games We Play with Each Other
The climate crisis: We need cooperation, not competition
Young Leaders Rising in India
Economists' over-simplified models harm complex social systems
The Young and Change
THE NEXT STEP IN DEMOCRATIC EVOLUTION IS OVERDUE
Democracy's Missing Middle
Policy frameworks of the 20th century need a paradigm shift
Our technocratic approach to institutions has failed us
Humanity matters, capitalism needs an upgrade
Power to the People
Wanted: A charter on the public purpose of private enterprise
Fix the process of reforming policies, and listen to people
The Indian government must rethink its strategy to create jobs
The poor state of the Indian state
A New Architecture for Global Governance
Business Leaders Must Learn to Learn Faster
2021: The Time to Act
In agri-reforms, go back to the drawing board
Listen to the less powerful
Back to the Basics of Manufacturing
India's manufacturers and policy-makers must learn much faster
Spinning a new world, post-Covid, that is better for everyone
Fixing the Rules of the Economy
Post-Covid world must reduce distorting power of global capital
‘Shares’ vs ‘values’ conflict in business
The learning factories India needs for rapid industrialization
Should Tatas have advertised for social harmony
Transforming systems is key to policy gains
Keep older people engaged, don't isolate them
My Vision of India...
The informal sector isn't well understood
The great scramble of millions to board India’s economic bus
A new paradigm for India’s economy
Enabling people to govern themselves
Effective coalitions form bottom up, not top down
The excuse of rigid labour laws
Recoupling the economy with society
Lessons for Yogi from Gandhi and Lee
A new economy good for everyone
Post-COVID economic models must be bottom-up
The used and discarded workers of India
Pathways to a more resilient economy
Opinion | A new economy must take shape once this crisis passes
From relief and recovery to resilience
For an economy driven by compassion
It is time to revisit how civil society engages with politics
Thinking national, acting local
What is the shape of the new economy we will build?
The Return of Socialism
It is time for good all-round national planning
Opinion | A chance to heal a world divided by invisible barriers
An online debate about planning for India in the 21st century
A time to heal
What business ethics is really all about
Listening to the call of the informal
Opinion | There’s a Gandhian third way for an inclusive economy
Corporate governance must be fixed
“Constructive Work”- A new vision for India's economy
Opinion | In an age of uncertainty, what'll be the next big turn?
Who do economists serve, really?
India needs a bottom-up growth model
The crux of unity in diversity
Opinion | Our economy needs ‘hard work’ as much as ‘Harvard’
Role of ethics in business of innovation
Opinion | The case for a holistic approach to policy formulation
Systems thinking for improving policy outcomes
Conversations in a noisy place
Some lessons in bottom-up growth from China and India too
Economies of scope: Singapore’s alternative approach to progress
Opinion | We need a people-centric approach to economic policy
Education: Richness and Reach
Reinventing the business corporation
Reinventing the governance of the business corporation
Citizens’ incomes and the engine of economic growth
Opinion | Our economy needs a systems thinking-based solution
Democracy and its discontents
Opinion | Modi seems to have reprised Gandhi’s economic vision
A manifesto for wealth creation
A process to get industry going and create more jobs
Opinion | Proper scenario-planning for the country’s future
A new approach to industrial policy
The strengths and failings of NGOs
Economics for the People
The economics of real things for real people
The purpose and competencies of NGOs
Opinion | Some questions thrown up by the ugly side of charity
An ethical toolkit for systems transformers
Why economists can’t explain Modi’s win
Gandhi not Milton Friedman
Is NITI Aayog old wine in a new bottle?
Is size the right metric to measure impact?
Opinion | A business redesign to make capitalism more inclusive
Beyond the free trade idealism
The human side of ‘Industry 4.0’
The purpose of a capitalist enterprise
First priority: an employment and incomes policy
Opinion | The Theory X and Theory Y of India’s economic reforms
Glitz, greed and garbage in Gurugram
Good Jobs, not Universal Basic Income
Good jobs for a good society
The McKinsey case and consulting’s ethical dilemma
Realizing the value of elderly persons in society
Think universal basic capital
Three solutions for structural problems of the Indian economy
Some Gandhian tips for Davos leaders
A silver bullet missing the target
The shape of growth matters
From smart cities to well-governed cities
Capitalism vs democracy: Consumers vs citizens
Opinion | Rankings cannot reveal the health of systems
Rankings cannot reveal the health of systems
Opinion | Reforming capitalism for human welfare
Why incomes, jobs aren’t rising fast enough
Opinion | Creating an India Consensus for growth
Who will robots and elephants vote for: Donald Trump or Xi Jinpin
Opinion | The many problems of India’s missing middle
What will happen after the 2019 elections
Opinion | V.S. Naipaul and India’s industrial policy
High growth alone is not the answer
Opinion | Social harmony is good for economic growth
The future of India
Government by the people is crucial for India
CSOs: A time to reform
Creating more jobs in India
The ethics of economic fairness are important
Diminishing trust in capitalist corporations
Learning to learn
Changing paradigm on economic policy
India must be practical in managing its trade policies
Changing fashions in economics and trade theories
Private enterprise, no panacea for scams
Indian enterprises need protection to grow
Designing a good business enterprise
A common man’s view of India’s progress
The purpose of the enterprise
We need labour reform of the right kind
Business for the people by the people
A bottom-up approach to achieving UN SDGs
Labor reforms to generate more jobs
India cannot take shortcuts to development
Changing the course of corporate Titanic
Coming together as one nation
Think global, act local
Will technology destroy democracy?
To tackle the Indian economy’s woes, create more jobs
More jobs for more growth
Is lack of an industrial policy hurting us?
Theories that impede job creation
We must listen to others' perspectives
The corporate values of Infosys
Fairness and dignity in livelihoods
More localization will make the world better
A just society
How do we know that our life’s work is really done?
Humanity in search of a new narrative
The technology of democracy
Focus on humans rather than robots
The paradox of progress
The fraying fabric of liberal democracy
Job creation is vital for a new India
Business leaders must learn to listen
The values business leaders choose to live by
Solutions for responsible business in the new globalization
The maths of the economy
How the media has let down democracy
India in the World 2035
Seven imperatives for job creation in India
Preparing for Policy Implementation 3.0
A wake-up call for business leaders
The Tatas and a matter of trust
A new approach for a jobs policy for India
Creating a learning society
Why is economic theory behind the curve?
Listening to people not like us
The politics of economic transitions
Listening to them—and shaping our future together
India’s three big challenges
Solving India’s problem of jobless growth
Building trust in an age of mistrust
India’s poor institutional memory
A vision to transform India: Will it work?
The gap between GDP and the SDGs
Fixing India’s jobs machine
Economics needs a new paradigm
The elderly as a resource, not a burden
Our great nation and its symbols
National identity and growth
Entrepreneurship to improve the world for everyone
Strengthening India to run a marathon
Intellectual property rights: When it’s broken, fix it!
Can ‘Make in India’ fly?
Implementation and the productivity of the Indian economy
The world needs a new economics
Yesterday’s strategies will not work in tomorrow’s world
Five levels of business responsibility
Climbing the ladder of business responsibility
Will India muddle along, fall apart or will the flotilla advance?
Rethinking the business of business
When aspirations collide with realities
Frustrated freedoms: When aspirations collide with realities
A time to talk and not tweet
A new vision for Make in India
A nation of good listeners
The Internet, society, and liberty
Capitalism corrupting the Internet
Getting India to work again
India’s discordant democrats
Getting to the truth about ourselves
Macroeconomics and the common man
What we really want
Mistaking parts for the whole
Mismeasuring our progress to futures we may not want
India at a turning point
India, a slow learning country
Rebooting India’s urban renewal
Can we become agreementative Indians?
A 21st-century Planning Commission
California and India's Planning Commission
India’s leadership crunch
By the people
Redesigning the airplane while flying: Reforming Institutions
Industry’s missing middle
Why I am an India optimist
India: a laggard among its peers
A vision of sustainable growth
We can do better
Pulling manufacturing out of the rut
India’s implementation deficit
India's 2% CSR law: The first country to go backwards
Cracking the growth conundrum
India: a federal flotilla
The values we choose to live by
Poverty, jobs, and labor laws
Rebuilding the map of economics
Developing a roadmap for the economy
Civil services fit for the future
Engineering a governance system
Fixing India’s city-systems
India: A million bottlenecks
Global solutions for India’s biggest cities
Reforming systems for healthy economies
A vision for India
The appreciating assets of manufacturing enterprises
India: Animal spirits or animal farm?
India: Animal spirits, Animal farm?
Learning to get things done
India Backbone Implementation Network
Points of light to pools of light
The reforms that matter
Powering up reforms
Globalization coming down to earth
The institutional way
Getting things done
Whither India?
Federalism and fireflies
It’s Not Just the Economy Stupid
Innovations to improve the performance of government
The mother of all reforms
Making the world round again
Rubber band fixes and governance reforms
A plan to grow Indian manufacturing
It is time for Plan C
If only we would all agree
Changing mindsets for inclusive growth
Including, through conversation
A manufacturing strategy for India
Ideas that hinder inclusive growth
Markets, trust and growth
Leadership in government
Organizing a complex system
What does it mean to be ‘political’?
Localization, not globalization
Letter to Dr. Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister of India
Igniting the truth within
From Davos to Sundernagari
Chak De the company
The 'WMD' we much proliferate
India: Many million fireflies now
Freedom to lead
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