HIGHER ORDER
Power for the greater good. Power that embraces risk. Power that tells a story. The India Today Power List 2017 celebrates those who have the courage to channel change
These are not definitions you will find in the dictionary. Power is possibility. The possibility that allows a petrochemical giant like Reliance to bet big on technology that will control the way we communicate with each other and entertain ourselves.
Power is the courage to take risks. The risk that allows another head of a conglomerate like the Aditya Birla Group to acquire a mobile giant and hunker down for a battle for the hearts and minds of the New Indian.
Power is in big ideas. The idea of Aadhaar, of skill development, of transparency in public life that has made private citizens such as Nandan Nilekani, Manish Sabharwal and Vinod Rai such an integral part of public policy.
Power is in telling a good story. The story that makes Priyanka Chopra not only a huge television star in America but also an advocate for girl children for United Nations; that makes Deepika Padukone a global beauty and a spokesperson for mental health; and that ensures that Aamir Khan is not just one of India’s most bankable stars but also a champion of good causes ranging from water conservation to female empowerment.
But, above all, power is the ability to make a difference to the world. To influence what we eat, how we live, how we amuse ourselves, how we relate to one another.
The High and Mighty List of 2017 is in keeping with the dynamic times we live in where reputations are made and unmade in a flash, when unicorns become unicorpses, when the state wields policy like stealth missiles, and where power can poison as much as it can aid progress.
It is also in keeping with the broad trends sweeping through the world. The fourth industrial revolution is seeing a convergence of various technologies, blurring the lines between the physical, digital and biological spheres. The people who inhabit this list are aware of it and are embracing it, investing in R&D for the future, becoming digitally ready and studying alternative forms of energy.
The rise of the sharing economy sees the entry into the list of country heads of giants who are looking at the India market with great interest—Amazon and Uber.
The assertion of civic evangelism means that everyone knows they have a larger responsibility to humanity. From choosing the right causes to give money to like Shiv Nadar to devoting time to the right campaigns like Amitabh Bachchan, they want to make a difference.
Power is also about relevance, about staying ahead of the game. Which explains why Ratan Tata can continue in the list, having engineered the inelegant exit of Cyrus Mistry, and why Subramanian Swamy, slayer of reputations, instils fear in the hearts of his opponents. Neither could do anything without building social networks. Power is knowledge, and if Mukesh Ambani reads late into the night, it’s not only because of the pleasure he derives from it. And if Shah Rukh Khan can quote Paulo Coelho as easily as Douglas Adams, it’s because his mind is always open to wonder.
Power in the 21st century is not how Niccolo Machiavelli envisaged it—ruthless, reliant on force, instinctively manipulative. Power, as UC Berkeley psychologist Dacher Keltner says, is softer, more relational, predicated on reputation rather than force, measured by one’s ability to affect the lives of others positively and shift the course of the world, however slightly, toward the common good.
So power is given, not grabbed. It is for the greater good, not for individual enhancement. It is shared, not monopolised. Today’s corporate titan, cultural icon, tech czar and public intellectual knows this: power is nothing if it is not used to build alliances, networks and collaborations, because the problems of the world are so immense right now that no one individual, community or even nation can resolve them.
And that finally is the greatest lesson of all: power is nothing in itself.