An Upstart in Government: Journeys of Change and Learning

The resistance to change comes from within, and often there is opposition from vested interests outside the organization. Opposition to changes in the Planning Commission had stalled all previous attempts to reform it. Perhaps even Dr Manmohan Singh s and Montek s will and their political skills to make the change would not be enough. Wisdom said that it would be best not to bang one s head again against the walls of opposition again.

For five years (2009-14) Arun Maira sat in India s cockpit, as member of India s national Planning Commission. These were years of great changes in the country, ending with the crash of the grand old Congress party in the national elections and the emergence of a new political configuration in government. With an insider s view An Upstart in Government analyses the root causes of the myriad bottlenecks in implementation of policies and projects in those years that brought down the growth of the economy. Maira explains that good governance of diverse and democratic India has to be built on strong systems of cooperation rather than hierarchical institutions. He uses his experience as a hands-on leader of organizations and a management consultant to explain how these systems must be developed. Maira s clear and candid thinking led to the winding down of the Planning Commission and its replacement by the National Institution for Transformation of India (NITI Aayog).

Thought-provoking and incisive, An Upstart in Government shows how India can develop processes to convert contention into collaboration and confusion into coordination, in order to avoid past mistakes and move towards a brighter future with faster, more inclusive, and sustainable growth.

Arun Maira is a thought leader and author of several books on leadership, institutional transformation and the future of India. He was a member of India s Planning Commission from 2009 to 2014. Prior to that, he was with the Tata Group in India and abroad for twenty-five years, consulted in the USA for ten years with Arthur D. Little Inc., and was the chairman of the Boston Consulting Group, India.