A quotation from Rabindranath Tagore

Five decades ago Peter Drucker said religion and politics have had their day; now business would shape society. The religious leaders were accountable to their gods and their scriptures; the politicians have their electorate to face. Who would business be accountable to?

Ability for Creation is the greatest of all the gifts God has given to man. Innovation and invention are aspects of Creation. The Japanese concept of ‘Continuous Improvement’ basically works on the power of an Idea (thought) and highlights the extent of untapped power each of us has within us.

A banker with a difference, J S Parthiban speaks of his pioneering efforts to free petty traders and even beggars from the grip of exploitative money lenders in New Delhi and Tamil Nadu. He believes, microfinance and microcredit can help the world’s poorest and ensure banks are not purely profit-driven. This article appeared on the website of the British daily The Guardian. He was talking to Amit Sen and Mike Smith.

Pune based Forbes Marshall is a leader in process efficiency and energy conservation through technology tie-ups and focused investments in manufacturing and research. They have joint ventures with the world’s leading names and deliver quality solutions in 14 countries. FM is probably the only company in the world to have extensive expertise in both steam and control instrumentation. Forbes Marshall’s close ties with MRA-Initiatives of Change (IofC) go back to the mid 70s. The employees, with their spouses, participate regularly in IofC programmes at Asia Plateau. Jt. Managing Director Mr Farhad Forbes (FF) and his wife, HR Director Rati Forbes (RF) share insights with Sudakshina Sinha Banerjee in this interview about their association with IofC.

The conference "Trust and Integrity in the Global Economy" took place in Caux, July this year.

A cartoon by Morris shows a Board meeting at which the presenter says, ‘So there it is in black and white, you’ll be in the red if you do not go green.’ What the cartoonist instinctively understood has, however, not been clear to most leaders of business and industry in the world today. Even as an environmental catastrophe faces humanity, a catastrophe largely of our own making, these leaders want to go on doing ‘business as usual’.

Caux Initiatives for Business (CIB) encourages business leaders, young professionals, NGO representatives, trade unionists, experts and decision makers to work together to bridge the gap between the theory and practice of values - in personal conduct and in economic life.

Rajmohan Gandhi is interviewed by Dawn, Karachi: Pakistanis and Indians should focus less on what America should or should not do, and more on how they (we) can assist Afghanistan — separately and jointly.

The power of the Indian newsweekly Himmat, an English-language paper published in Mumbai by Rajmohan Gandhi from 1964 to 1981, was ‘the power of the ideas it represented’, said Kumar Ketkar, editor of Loksatta, the largest circulation Marathi-language daily in the state of Maharashtra.

Grampari, the village environmental development initiative in Panchgani, India, held a camp for three days with 50 children who came from Savli. All of them are below 14 years old. Some were from a remand home and others orphans.

A student participant at a programme at Asia Plateau wrote these lines during the ‘Soul Nurture walk’:

The Brahmi plant contains an alkaloid – Brahmine which is a cardiac tonic that provides strength and tone to the heart. It is valued in medicine as a tonic for nerves and in nervous disorders like convulsions, epilepsy and fainting. It is good for patients suffering from insanity. Bacopa monnieri ……scrophulariaceae

Habil and Farida Poonawalla are the latest contributors to the 40th Anniversary fund. They drove up from Pune with cheque for Rs. 50,000/- for a ‘brick’. They have always been generous with their friends in IofC and helped many full time workers and contributed to the AP whenever there was need. Another who wishes to remain anonymous gave a cheque for a ‘brick’ (Rs. 50,000/-).

India may have 6-7% economic growth rate, booming trade and foreign exchange reserves. Terrific! But what about the Character Bank of India? At the time of Independence, India’s moral capital was high around the world. Struggling nations looked to India for it’s moral and non-violent ways to answer injustice and the search for human dignity. But succeeding generations have hardly added to this moral capital. Our ‘Character Bank Reserves’ are on the verge of being nil. The legacy of the Independence Movement has run out.