“Crisis is a time of innovation’ – Subroto Bagchi

“We need to create social memory to make sure that when the crisis hits again, we know how to tackle the crisis. We deal cyclones in Odisha not with money but with social memory”, said Shri Subroto Bagchi at the first chapter of SAI Thought Leadership, a series of discussion sessions with a focus on the development of the nation. Mr Subroto Bagchi, Chairman, Odisha Skill Development Authority, Chief Spokesperson, Covid 19, Govt of Odisha, Co – founder Mindtree and Best-Selling Author graced the occasion as the esteemed speaker along with Dr. Bijaya Kumar Sahoo, Advisor cum Working President, Odisha Adarsha Vidyalaya Sangathan, Govt of Odisha, Founder Mentor, SAI International Education Group.

SAI Thought Leadership is a vital learning platform where luminaries, each a leader of prominence and trend setter in their own field, engage in deliberation on a plethora of relevant issues and subjects with a focus on the holistic development of the individuals and the nation.The erudite speakers, via their deeply enriching talks will not just develop civic competences, regulate thought processes but act as pathfinders and problem solvers. Each session will be followed by a stimulating face to face conversation between the esteemed speaker and Dr. Bijaya Kumar Sahoo, Advisor cum Working President, Odisha Adarsha Vidyalaya Sangathan, Govt of Odisha, Founder Mentor, SAI International Education Group.

The topic of discussion for the session hosted today was “Moving the Mountains: Managing Crisis” and Mr Subroto Bagchi emphasized on an action plan on how leaders, educational institutions / organizations should combat crisis prevalent in the current scenario Shri Subroto Bagchi emphasized upon 20 different strategies to manage crisis the three things required in the time of crisis i.e. by Creating Caution, Creating Urgency and most of all Creating Hope.

While addressing to the question on how to handle crisis, should one be the law abiding Ram or the law breaking Krishna, he said, “I know it’s a trick question but Ram and Krishna both are incarnations of Vishnu. These kinds of situations created in mythology actually establish a simple idea. It is that the truth which will always be present itself in contradictions. You have a choice to either get lost in the truth or face the contradictions” These kinds of difficult situations based in mythology are only created to push us to ask deeper questions. In mythology we must know that, ‘In Krishna, Rama is speaking and in Rama, Krishna is speaking”.

On being asked which book of his should be read first he said, “I think a lot of people love ‘Go kiss the world’ and a lot of people love ‘Professional’. I feel Professional is actually very relevant today. Go Kiss the World works because it is the story of every family. I think it is crucial for young professionals of today to read ‘Professional’.

Quoting on dealing with the crisis situations of Odisha, he said, “Moments of crisis, is a time for innovation, not a time for running a normal business; the greatest thing that happened in Odisha during the times of pandemic was we gave every Sarpanch the powers of a collector to handle the migrant workers situation. The second greatest thing that happened was, we understood that the best people to feed the people returning to the village were the mothers and sisters in the village. The self help groups were given monetary support to handle the feeding of the migrant workers, the Government realised that this is a crisis which cannot be fought from the Secretariat but from the villages. It is also extremely crucial for a leader to conserve energy to fight the crisis. We need to create social memories to make sure that when the crisis hits again, we know how to tackle the crisis. We deal cyclones in Odisha not with money but with social memories.Crisis is the time to build bonds and memories.”

While speaking at SAI Thought Leadership Dr Bijaya Kumar Sahoo, thanked Shri Bagchi and requested to him talk about Startups in Odisha and encourage the young entrepreneurs to bring about a transformation in the State.