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And did Chanakya have anything to say about the presentglobal economic crisis?(Continued from Page 1)Recently, Prof. Shastri’s grandsonwas quoted by the media as sayingthat nobody was celebrating the 100thanniversary of the publishing ofArthashastra.The new book was proof that theanniversary had not gone unnoticed,said Dr. Pillai, who was confident thatKautilya’s Arthashastra would be relevantfor another 1,000 years.“This book is the past, present andfuture of India. Talking about it is liketalking about a library, about an institution….Books like this have an impactfor thousands of generations.“Kautilya’s Arthashastra is not thefirst arthashastra. There were manyothers before it and many others afterChanakya. When I asked my guru Dr.Gangadharan Nair how come onlyKautilya’s Arthashastra had survivedso many generations, he said it wasbecause of one attribute, viz., quality.“That quality had come about dueto thorough research. Chanakya hadstudied all the arthashastras, understoodthe principles and also foreseenthe problems that would arise thousandsof years later and written thisone book which created history.”Dr. Pillai said Chanakya had describedthe four stages of wealth.One, wealth identification. Wherewould money come from? This requiredresearch to identify sources ofwealth and opportunities to accumulateit. Merely learning about thesewould not make one rich.Therefore, the second stage waswealth creation. This would only followas a consequence of hard work.Page 2, THE GATEWAY, 8th September, 2009But after one became rich or managedto acquire wealth, there came anotherchallenge, that of managing wealth.And so the third stage was wealthmanagement through investments,securities and so on in order to havesufficient wealth for oneself, one’s familyand a few generations.But Chanakya was a visionary whotalked about the next, the fourth stageof wealth, that is, wealth distribution.“He starts with you and tells youto make yourself secure first. And inhow many verses? In 6,000 sutras onwealth management! No other bookin the world has ever covered suchdetails of accounting, auditing, taxationand so on.”Did Chanakya have anything to sayabout the present global economic crisis?Yes, Dr. Pillai insisted, Chanakyawas one step ahead.While most economists and otherexperts were performing a postmortemof the current situation,Chanakya had talked about preventionbeing better than cure.He stated clearly that if regularchecks and balances, or auditing, wereconducted from time to time, then economiccrises would not occur. Further,it was the duty of the ruler to ensurethat accounting and checks and balancesauditing took place from time totime.Dr. Pillai quoted what he called “onevery strong sutra” from among the6,000. It was simple but powerful:Praja sukhe sukham raja, prajachahite hitam.It meant that at the end of it all, it(money) had to make society happy.Indu reveals some interesting factsWhen Mr. Deepak Parekh, theChairman of HDFC, addressedstudents of H.R. College ofCommerce and Economics in 1991,he left a deep impression on them.Today, 18 years later, three FirstYear students, who were sitting inthe first row then, are Vice-Presidentswith HDFC.City Sheriff and College PrincipalIndu Shahani shared this nuggetat the last meeting after releasingthe book, Kautilya’s Arthashastrabrought out by the PriyadarshniAcademy.But this was not the only one;she related another that was evenmore inspiring.While compiling the history ofthe College which is about to complete50 years, it was noted thatthe founder Principal had said inChanakya was the first thinker in Indian history who did not write off ordisparage money, asserts Dr. Radhakrishnan PillaiTrue, money was a resource, but “finally,it should lead to happiness”.In other words, Chanakya wasthe first thinker in Indian historywho did not write off or disparagemoney.“There is no condemnation, callingthe rich filthy rich. He says onlymoney can give happiness, but thatdoesn’t mean that money is the end ofeverything. He also talks about wealthdistribution.“When J.R.D. Tata was askedwhether he wanted India to be a superpower,he had replied: ‘I want Indiato be a happy country’. And happiness,Chanakya says, can only comeabout if we have the financial resources.He is practical; Chanakya’s greatestsuccess is that he is very practical.”Dr. Pillai said that during a recentvisit to Delhi he noticed that in theSupreme Court Museum, where prideof place was given to the Preamble ofthe Constitution, “We, the People of1960 that “this is a commerce collegeand not a commercial college;we want the ideals of great leadersto be emulated”.He then held up the first book(on J.N. Tata) that was presentedto the College. He said that “Tata’sideals are what we would like tofollow in the college”.And it so happened that out ofthe first batch of 125 students fromH.R. College, 42 had joined theTata’s and worked with them for40 years.Turning to the Teach for Indiaprogramme and its founder CEOMs Shaheen Mistri, Indu said thather talk coincided with Teacher’sDay (September 4) which was thebirthday of Dr. S. Radhakrishnan.It was he (Dr. Radhakrishnan)who had said at the dawn of Independencethat “India’s future willbe shaped in her classrooms”.India…” the lines next to it stated unambiguouslythat “We derive our Constitutionfrom Kautilya’s Arthashastra”.He urged his audience to read thebook, talk about it and gift it to friends,colleagues and associates, insisting thatit was a book whose time had come.He recalled the quotation of VictorHugo which was used by the presentPrime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh,when he was the Finance Minister in1991 to usher in the era of liberalisationand globalisation:“Armies can be resisted, but not anidea whose time has come.”Dr. Pillai added: “Chanakya’sand Kautilya’s Arthashastra’s timehas come. Now it’s your choicewhether you want to be a part ofthis history, or you wish to justwatch as this history is being created.”The vote of thanks was proposedby Pradeep Saxena.While this was indeed happening,increasingly, it was the youth of Indiawho were shaping its future.Teach for India was a great movementwhich many people haddreamt about but which Ms Mistrihad put into action. Young peoplewere leaving lucrative jobs with greatcompanies and going to local, municipaland general schools to teach.And teaching was giving themmore maturity and experience thanthe corporate world could give themin a hundred years.“I compliment Shaheen and herteam. The message we should takehome is to spend one hour a monthwith the educational institution thatwe attended and give back to society.Nobody wants your money oryour resources. We want your timeand your experience; share it withthe young students,” Indu added.See also Page 4
THE ‘ARTHASHASTRA’ IS 2,400 YEARS OLD YETIT ANSWERS ALL QUESTIONS UNDER THE SUNAfascinating new book, Kautilya’sArthashastra, the way of financialmanagement and economic governance,brought out by NanikRupani and the Priyadarshini Academyand published by M/s JaicoPublishing House, was released at thelast meeting by the Sheriff of Bombay,(Dr.) Indu Shahani.Put together by a team of economistsworking under Kiran Nanda atthe Indian Merchants’ Chamber, thebook is a compilation of contemporaryarticles on Kautilya’s originaltreatise in Sanskrit.Indu, who is also the Principal ofH.R. College of Economics and a distinguishededucationist, after unveilingthe book recalled an interestingexperience during a visit to the LondonBusiness School in mid-August.At a high level colloquium on financeand the ills of the global economicscenario, the main speaker saidthat “what’s really gone wrong is that‘Green Earth Summit’ to be heldon September 13The national seminar on globalwarming and water management,styled “Green Earth Summit”, willbe held on Sunday, September 13, atHotel Leela. The Rotary Club ofBombay is the Platinum Club Hostfor the event.Another important programme willbe held at the same venue, on the sameevening. This will be The RotaryFoundation (TRF) Seminar at whichPast R.I. President Bill Boyd will bethe chief guest.Among the speakers at the “GreenEarth Summit” will be Dr. RajendraSingh, a recipient of the MagsaysayAward, who will be presented with aLifetime Achievement Award by District3140.PRIP Bill Boyd, who was instrumentalin forging a joint partnershipbetween Rotary and UNAIDS forwater projects, will address the closingplenary session.Other speakers will be Past R.I.Director Ron Denham, Chairman ofthe Water and Sanitation RotarianAction Group (WASRAG) fromCanada; Dr. Ajit Gokhale, water conservationist;Ms Suprabha Maratheof the Bombay Municipal Corporation;Prof. O.P. Kulkarni, an experton solar energy; Mr. Shri Bhagwan,the Chief Conservator of Forests; andMr. Prabhat Singh, author and environmentalist.we have not linked corporate financeor finance and accounting to othersubjects… and the most importantis economics”.But it was no surprise to find inthe book, Kautilya’s Arthashastra,that even in 4th century B.C.,Kautilya had said that there could beno accounting without a link to economics.She added that India was probablyone of the only countries insulatedfrom the worldwide financial crisis –because “we have always understoodArthashastra better than the world”.Programme Chairman NanikRupani, who is also the Chairman ofthe Priyadarshini Academy, thankedIndu for coming from Delhi for thebook launch. He also thanked KiranNanda for her assistance in puttingthe book together and Mr. AshwinMehta, Mr. Akash Mehta and Mr.Sharma of Jaico Publishing House fortheir co-operation.There are limited seats andRotarians have been requested to registeras early as possible. The registrationcharges are Rs. 1,700. Chequesshould be drawn in favour of “RotaryGreen Earth Summit” and sentto District Treasurer RajendraKinariwala at A-1 Bonanza IndustrialEstate, Ashok Chakravarthy Road,Kandivli (East), Bombay 400101.Dr. Bharat Pandya and KumarKewalramani are the Conveners forthe summit.Nanik recalled that the germ of thebook was born in the course of a discussionwith (Dr.) Ram Tarneja, wellknownmanagement expert.Kautilya had answers to almost allquestions under the sun, whether financialmanagement, intelligence, thekind of friends one should keep, thetype of people to be avoided, the kindof people to be employed and so on.Asked about the rate of taxation,Kautilya had said that taxationworked best when it acted like a honeybeegently taking a little bit of thenectar in a flower without disturbingthe flower.He had also suggested that administrativeexpenses were best keptwithin 25% of the revenue collection.In other words, his book was a sortof readyreckoner for making any kindof strategic decision.He’s one happy donor. Hon. Joint Secretary Nirav Shah recently donated atelevision set for use by the ‘Bhavishya-Yaan’ project at the Dr. AmbedkarMunicipal School in Worli. Others in this picture are (from right) Vice-President Paul George, President Nandan Damani, Chairman AlokSekhsaria and PP Arun SanghiOn the front row. A section of the audience at the last meeting. Among thosewho can be spotted are (from left) Tarjani Vakil, PP Kalpana Munshi, (Dr.)Ram Tarneja, the legendary Dr. L.H. Hiranandani and Natoobhai BrahmbhattAnother book, Machiavelli andKautilya, was being put together andwould be published soon, Nanikadded.Donations acknowledgedPresident Nandan thanked Honorary member Mr. Ajay Piramalat the beginning of the last meetingfor his munificent donation of Rs. 10lakhs for the Community Serviceprojects of the Club (as reported inThe Gateway dated September 1).Next, he thanked the Katgara familyfor the donation of Rs. 50,000from the Katgara Foundation for theWater Management projects.Nandan also announced the receiptof birthday donations from severalmembers during the week gone by.He said that Poonam Kumar haddonated Rs. 11,000; Mudit Jain Rs.2,501; Vijay Meghani Rs. 1,501; andRotaryann Naju Colah Rs. 1,001. Hethanked all of them for their contributions.At the last meeting(Held on September 1, 2009)PRESIDENT Nandan called themeeting to order and welcomed theguest speakers, visiting Rotarians,Rotaryanns, guests and others.BIRTHDAYSMembers and Rotaryanns celebratingtheir birthday during theweek were felicitated.ATTENDANCEMembers 139Visiting Rotarians 4Spouses/Rotaryanns 9Guests 53Total 205Svc. box collection Rs. 7,1208th September, 2009, THE GATEWAY, Page 3
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