India Inc's Journey of Conscience: From Moral Roots to Ethical Renaissance

As India charts its journey toward the aspiration of becoming a developed nation by 2047, it must return to the moral promise embedded in its own history. When it was declared on the eve of Independence that India was making ‘a tryst with destiny,’ it was not merely a statement of political freedom but a call for invoking a deeper responsibility, a call to rediscover the “soul of a nation long suppressed”.

Today, as we march ahead as the third largest and fastest growing major economy of the world, the call finds resolution with the potent sense of urgency. Economic expansion, technological leaps, and infrastructural ambition are essential, but they are not sufficient to fulfil this modern tryst with destiny. True development demands the inner strength of a society, its integrity, its ethical vision, its discipline, and its unwavering commitment to justice and fairness.

The India of 2047 cannot simply be richer; it must be truer to the ideals of conscientiousness, correctness and candor. To rise fully, India must marry its economic aspirations with the moral clarity that once defined its civilizational identity. Only then can the promise made at midnight in 1947 find its complete and glorious expression a century later.

Accordingly it is not only imperative but also critical to bring “ethics in business” in the center of the conversation on economic development and transformational progress.

The current national vision rightly emphasizes youth empowerment, economic growth, women-led development, social welfare, innovation, sustainability, and global leadership. Yet the unspoken truth remains that development without ethics is ultimately fragile. Integrity in business dealings, sincerity of purpose, respect for regulations, and the courage to resist shortcuts must form the invisible architecture of a truly developed India.

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The developed world at large and the history of nations have demonstrated that ethical culture is not a peripheral element but the core engine of progress. The economic structural transformations were led by not just individuals or as an outcome to economic or political disruptions, but by the sheer force of the incorruptibility and impeccability of the various national and local institutions, and robust systems.

Scandinavian countries such as Denmark, Finland, and Sweden consistently rank among the highest in human development and lowest in corruption. It is important to bear in mind that these institutions and systems operate with exceptionally strong social trust levels, prioritizing fairness and predictability, and building corporate environments on transparency. It is also important to understand that in the event of a failure, it was the people who failed, and never the institution or the system.

The real lesson, therefore, is that societal mindsets must evolve in harmony with the highest ideals of character, for it is people who ultimately shape, strengthen, and mature the very institutions in which they live.

Countries like Germany, Japan, and Switzerland showed that the mindset operates with honesty in transactions, respect for rules, good faith in dealings, keeping promises, fairness with stakeholders and dignity in purpose. These nations did not grow merely because they built infrastructure or embraced technology, they grew because their people and institutions anchored themselves in integrity and responsible behaviour. This global pattern highlights an uncomfortable but necessary lesson for India: economic strategies alone cannot deliver Viksit Bharat unless supported by ethical consciousness.

India itself is no stranger to high moral standards. Ancient Indian civilization cultivated some of the world’s most enduring ethical frameworks. Concepts like dharma, satya, and ahinsa shaped individual and collective conduct. Institutions such as the gurukul system emphasised character before skill. Chanakya’s Arthashastra argued for ethical governance and accountability while balancing realism.

Leaders, teachers, merchants, and farmers once operated within a moral ecology where personal integrity was not an option but a duty. The civilizational ethos was rooted in righteousness, truth-seeking, self-restraint, and social responsibility, offering India a moral compass that sustained its cultural and economic achievements for centuries.

Yet somewhere between ancient India and today’s modern era, the economic playground, the political discourse and the social fabric gradually drifted from this value-driven path. Colonial rule disrupted indigenous institutions, fractured traditional value systems, and replaced them with a bureaucratic framework that often rewarded compliance over conscience.

The post-colonial decades saw further erosion as scarcity-driven policies, rigid controls, and systemic inefficiencies made jugaad a survival mechanism rather than a cultural flair. Over time, shortcuts became normalized, and the pressure to navigate an unpredictable administrative environment created incentives that were often misaligned with ethical behaviour. This gradual shift diluted the centrality of integrity that once defined Indian society.

In the post-independence era, business ethics in India went through several phases. Controlled and closed economy denied access to the opportunities, over regulated systems and institutions delayed the business process and hatched mistrust. All this cumulatively fostered an environment where access, influence, and negotiations with the bureaucracy outweighed innovation, customer focus, and quality.

Liberalization, privatization, and globalization in the early 1990s opened the economy and introduced global standards, but also exposed businesses to new competitive pressures. Many companies rose to the challenge with professionalism and transparency, while others cut corners to keep pace. Corporate governance scandals, regulatory lapses, and weak enforcement often overshadowed the successes. The business ecosystem evolved, but ethical consistency did not keep with pace with it.

In the small business world, this was felt acutely yet no scams, frauds or breaches came to the fore, as if all was hunky dory when it was not the case. Further the dazzling success of a few small businesses by deploying shortcuts and unethical means and manipulations created a domino effect among peers, proliferating this model of “successful” business.

Today, India stands at a crossroads. The industrial landscape is filled with large corporate houses, public sector undertakings, co-operatives, non-profits, traders, tech enterprises and MSME. It is apparent that after 78 years of independence there are budding Indian Multinational Companies, potential world famous brands in making, promising globally

renowned social organizations and exceptional start-ups waiting to be unicorns and progressive small business. However, this phenomenal growth is juxtaposed with the presence of informal practices, regulatory evasion, creative accounting, environmental negligence, data manipulation, and unethical competitive tactics.

Public trust in institutions remains low, and the gap between policy intent and ground reality often stems from issues of integrity more than capability. The “jugaad mindset, while useful for creativity, sometimes undermines long-term discipline, excellence, and accountability. This contradiction poses a major challenge to the Viksit Bharat aspiration, for no nation can be considered truly developed if ethical governance remains inconsistent.

The vision of Viksit Bharat 2047 is both inspiring and attainable, but it cannot be achieved by focusing only on economic acceleration or technological prowess. True development is the harmony of prosperity and principles, growth and goodness, innovation and integrity. India possesses the cultural inheritance, intellectual capacity, and youthful energy to become a global exemplar. Yet it must also be acknowledged that none of this will happen overnight.

To transform this vision into reality, India will require strong political will, bureaucratic commitment, and entrepreneurial sincerity. The journey ahead demands both evolutionary and revolutionary shifts. This would necessarily require that there is Institutional Strengthening and Behavioral Realignment

The evolutionary path requires transparent systems, fair procedures, standardized processes, systemic accountability and progressive outlook in terms of institutional firmament. In so far as the individual demeanor in concerned, the glide path should contain strong and resolute elements of instilling values in formative years, moral reasoning, promoting healthy competition, providing access to equal opportunities irrespective of gender, caste, creed, color and race; promoting trust based peer learning and accountable leaderships.

While evolutionary path will find its own pace and rhythm but it will be a long drawn process and therefore to catapult the shift a revolutionary thrust is an unmistakable requisite.

The revolutionary level calls for decisive change across the business ecosystem, trade associations, district administration, state governance frameworks, central policy structures, and, importantly, the political and bureaucratic spheres that shape national direction.

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Revolutions, throughout history, have almost always been ignited by either a profound crisis or a transformative disruption. By that measure, the present decade can rightfully be called the Decade of Disruptions. Every aspect of human and business life—technology, geopolitics, climate, markets, governance, social behaviour, and global supply chains—is undergoing rapid, unprecedented change.

These disruptions are not isolated; they are reshaping regions, redefining industries, and rewriting long-standing systems and policies. In their wake, countless micro-revolutions have already begun—new ways of working, new models of governance, new business paradigms, and new societal expectations. The challenge and opportunity before us now is to stitch these revolutions together, to converge and synergize them into a cohesive national transformation. That convergence is where the real momentum lies, and where India’s next leap forward will truly begin.

To build Viksit Bharat, a truly developed India, we must embrace Naitik Bharat, an ethical India which is propelled by a judicious mix of evolution and revolution. A nation where integrity becomes as aspirational as success, where citizens are proud not just of what they earn but of how they earn it. The government can set the framework, but it is the collective conscience of the people that must bring this transformation to life.

The educators, innovators, entrepreneurs, and thinkers of today have an opportunity, and an obligation, to rebuild the moral DNA of the nation. While the government, regulators, policy makers and think tanks can provide the necessary frameworks and superstructures, the real onus for transformation would bear upon the business community at large, wherein the large corporate houses need to lead by example and its auxiliary industry and small businesses need to follow suit.

"People create their own questions because they're afraid to look straight. All you have to do is look straight and see the road, and when you see it, don't sit looking at it - walk." – Ayn Rand

Ateesh Singh is Joint Secretary and Ankita Pandey is Director at Ministry of MSME.