Watch time: 43 min / Read Time: 2 min
In this Founding Fuel Meet The Author podcast with Charles Assisi, Subroto Bagchi reflects on his book The Day the Chariot Moved and how ordinary people in government and society quietly move India forward. Bagchi is co-founder, MindTree and former chairman, Odisha Skill Development Authority. The discussion traverses themes of governance, integrity, poverty, aspiration, and what it means to lead with empathy and idealism.
5 Key Takeaways
1. The Chariot Moves Quietly
Bagchi challenges the corporate world’s cynicism towards bureaucracy. To him, the government is not broken—it’s invisibly functional, often under crisis and chaos.
“During COVID, everything was locked down, yet food came to our plate. Freight trains moved, hospitals ran, law and order held. It wasn’t the private sector in command—it was the government.”
He urges India’s educated class to rediscover respect for public systems and recognize that change happens daily through those who serve silently.
2. The Real Corruption Lies in Society
Tracing India’s moral arc from Independence to today, Bagchi argues corruption isn’t just bureaucratic—it’s a “social seduction”. When you buy something, the first thing the contractor or seller will ask is, whether you want a bill—and if you take a bill, GST will be applied.
“It’s easy to say it is being demanded of me. But many times, society seduces—and we willingly go along. Law is not a substitute for character.”
Transparency, he says, begins at home. Nations high on integrity build it from citizen behaviour, not just from punitive systems.
3. Skill Is the Engine of Human Transformation
Bagchi recounts his Odisha years and his insistence that skill isn’t just employability; it’s dignity. His “10-6-4-2” formula for reviewing vocational institutes reframed outcomes. He would ask about the role models from the institutes—10 students they’re proud of. Of these 10, 6 who have made a name for themselves outside Odisha; 4 women; and 2 micro-entrepreneurs. It helped him identify what needs to be fixed and what needs to be accelerated.
His story about Muni Tigga, an adivasi woman who studied at an ITI in an interior part of Odisha and is now a locomotive pilot, becomes a metaphor for empowerment: quiet competence that rewrites social hierarchies.
“If I can help produce another Muni Tigga, that young tribal woman driving a freight train through the night, then I’ve done my bit. You create intergenerational human transformation.”
4. The Fragile Class: One Illness Away from Poverty
He warns against minimalist economics that celebrate token progress. There are millions of invisible Indians “just-above-poverty”—the people who have moved from poverty to respectable poverty and are just one hospital bill away from collapse.
“The combined market cap of the top two delivery companies in the country was $38 billion the last time I tracked. How is it translating down to the well-being of the delivery person who makes his way on a broken two-wheeler through an ocean of carbon monoxide, to deliver that pizza?”
Bagchi argues for maximalism in empathy, urging policies and individual choices that give people a “longer, safe passage” out of poverty.
5. Idealism Is Not Naive
For Bagchi, idealism is the core operating system of progress. It shapes institutions, fuels trust, and bridges despair.
“Please grant me idealism. Without it, where would we be? We are all children of someone’s idealism.”
He calls for a “radioactive transmission” of idealism to reawaken civic spirit and rebuild institutional credibility.
6. Leadership Is the Art of Acceptance
His transition from entrepreneur to working with the government taught him humility and scale—even the smallest government department deals with millions of people. Real intergenerational change, he says, demands loving the system before reforming it.
“When you walk into a large, unstructured system, you must begin by saying, ‘I accept you’. Only then does the system reveal its soul. The difference between those who lead and those who fail is seldom intellect. It is the ability to connect with the soul of the system.”
Leadership, in his view, is less about intellect or pedigree and more about emotional congruence with the system you serve.
