Insights with Gurcharan Das

Gurcharan Das used to be the CEO of Proctor & Gamble India and managing director of Procter & Gamble (worldwide) until he quit to become a full-time writer. His bestselling work include India Unbound and The Difficulty of Being Good.

He studied philosophy and business management at Harvard and has become over the years a bit of a sage of Dalal Street, often turned to for sagacious advice by business leaders.

He says that he sees his new big book Kama: The Riddle of Desire as the third part of a trilogy that deals with human emotions as seen in Indian philosophy - artha (weath), dharma (the morality of justice) and kama (desire).

In this interview he talks about why, even as India has grown exponentially wealthier since the opening of the economy in 1991, the sense of refinement and sensuality which had always been a particularly prominent facet of the Indian exploration of wealth and luxury seems to be lost.

Das speaks about the predicament of loyalty and sexual fidelity that many high-performing corporate leaders face and how to tackle this dilemma, and why the conflict between dharma and kama is a bit like the dilemma of demonetisation.