Punjab has the superpower of Enterprise
Bhairavi Jani, author of ‘Highway to Swades: Rediscovering India’s Superpowers’
emphasises how Punjab’s ‘Power of Enterprise’ can accelerate the state’s growth story.
Demokratic Front Correspondent, Chandigarh:
Renowned and admired logistics and supply chain entrepreneur Bhairavi Jani met with the media in Chandigarh to have a conversation on her soon-to-be-released book ‘Highway to Swades: Rediscovering India’s Superpowers’. The book highlights twelve superpowers of the people of India and how they can be called to action for the development of the nation. It is being published by HarperCollins Publishers India and is expected to hit the shelves by the first week of November.
The book is the result of Bhairavi’s extensive travels across the length and breadth of India, most notable amongst them the 18,181 km journey she undertook for 51 days in 2014. Through multiple lenses of history, economics, markets, race, faith, and politics – in her book, Bhairavi has connected the dots between India’s rich and vast civilisation and India’s road ahead as the world’s largest democracy.
Bhairavi believes that Indians from all walks of life have an inner power of enterprise and the people of Punjab are a great example of how this power of enterprise can be applied to areas as diverse as agriculture, manufacturing, information technology, to name a few. In her book she celebrates the power of creativity of the Punjabis by citing examples of tank art, truck art and the widely practiced Jugaad. She further elaborates that, “Punjabis, will also need to reimagine and reengineer Jugaad to create a virtuous cycle of innovation, enterprise, and stakeholder value creation.” She believes that “There is a deep need for an entrepreneurial ecosystem which is rooted in the constitutional values of liberty, equality, and fraternity, so that the power of enterprise is harnessed across all strata of society and for the betterment of society.”
In the book, Bhairavi articulates the Twelve Superpowers of the Indian people and charts a roadmap on how these can be applied to India’s developmental path ahead:
| Power of EnterprisePower of NaturePower of HeritagePower of CreativityPower of KnowledgePower of Food | Power of BeautyPower of WellnessPower of AssimilationPower of InclusionPower of IndividualPower of Community |
In her book, Bhairavi suggests that to augment the power of enterprise of the people of Punjab we need to begin early and take a systemic view of how this power can be a catalyst for the state’s development. She says, “The cornerstone of identifying, recognizing and augmenting purpose-driven entrepreneurship is to encourage children at school to explore ideas of entrepreneurship and develop it as a life skill.”
Bhairavi fondly recounts how she has on multiple occasions experienced the power of community the Punjabis bring to everything they do. She is confident that when Punjab’s power of enterprise is coupled with its power of community – growth and transformation are guaranteed.
Highway to Swades is Jani’s attempt to tell the stories of Indians from all walks of life and from all corners of the country through the superpowers they possess as people and how Indians everywhere can use these powers to bring individual enterprise for the collective good of the nation.
