Southern States - Karnataka   

'Corporates should work for a better society'

By Our Special Correspondent

Bangalore Nov. 21. Corporate India should take up the leadership along with spiritual leaders for transforming society, which is faced with challenges of corruption, terrorism, and dwindling ethical practice in governance. This was the refrain at the three-day international conference on "Corporate culture and spirituality", organised here today by the Art of Living Foundation headed by Ravishankar Guruji.

The conference is being attended by CEOs, spiritual leaders, and political leaders who underlined the urgent need for a concerted effort by all the three to cleanse society of the present-day ills. They stressed the need to achieve the common goal of eliminating poverty, hunger, and hatred.

They highlighted the failure of corporate and political leadership in stemming the slide in ethical governance and reaching the benefits of development and economic gains to the people. While stating that spirituality played a vital role in harnessing the efforts of political and corporate leaders, they said it was time that governance was dictated by ethical values.

The Chairman of ICICI Bank, N. Vaghul, said: "A corporate leaders is the kingpin for transforming society and, with the political leaders having failed us, it is time for corporate leaders to take up the challenge of transformation of society."

He had a dig at the practice of meditation as a means to relieve stress so as to attain peace and clarity in thinking for corporate governance. "Spirituality has a larger purpose of freeing the mind from `I' consciousness which affects the perceptions of societal welfare."

The Chairman of Modicorp, B.K. Modi, said spirituality had an important role to play and it was time corporates and spiritual leaders took up the challenges and fought terrorism and diminishing ethical practices to establish a peaceful society for wealth generation and distribution.

The Minister for Large- and Medium-scale Industries, R.V. Deshpande, said politicians were also human beings and that it needed the combined effort of different sections to ensure that there was good governance in all spheres of life.

The CEO of Hazmed, U.S., Jacquelin Sales, said it was only the coordinated wisdom of the political, spiritual, and the corporate leadership that could lead society out of moral conflicts.

Ravishankar Guruji said sincerity and motivation based on spiritual values should guide society in reducing stress and tension in day-to-day life. Lack of broad vision was one of the problems that was affecting society, he said.

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