Rising intolerance, social instability, hate crimes, crimes against women, moral policing, caste and religion based violence can "seriously damage” economic growth in India, warned Adi Godrej, chairman of the Godrej Group. "With the growth vision and dreams firing away, it’s not all a rosy picture as yet… Unemployment is soaring,” stated the industrialist. He was speaking at a leadership summit to celebrate the 150th anniversary of his alma mater, St Xavier’s College on July 13, 2019. Godrej congratulated Prime Minister Narendra Modi for presenting a "grand vision” to double the economy to five trillion US dollars by 2024. But he said that chronic water and air pollution, indiscriminate industrialization, water crisis, growing use of environment-damaging plastics, and the country’s healthcare spending being the lowest within its emerging market peers are among the other issues that need to be tackled on a war footing, according to a report in The Indian Express (IE) on July 14.
Above: St Xavier’s College; (inset) Adi Godrej: "Leadership is about telling the truth"
Godrej "exuded confidence that the many measures initiated (by the government) will lead to significant changes in the times to come,” stated The Economic Times, and "exhorted the students not to shy from leadership… He reminded them that leadership is about telling the truth without worrying whether it is popular or not.” NDTV.com added that he urged the students "to be compassionate and empathetic and at the same time level-headed.”
"Inclusiveness must include benefits that go to the generations of the future,” noted speaker and former Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia. Others present at the summit included former Thermax chairperson Anu Aga, Teach For India chief executive officer Shaheen Mistri, Infosys cofounder Narayana Murthy and his wife Sudha, founder of Orchid Hotel chain Vithal Kamat among others, noted IE.