Weekend Bites: PM in US, and the importance of being the opposite of polite

In which we munch over the week's platter of news and views

Three decades ago, Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the United States of America as a common man.
 
“At that time, I had seen the White House from outside,” he recalled on Thursday, in surroundings a tad different from what he would have faced on the “common man” visit.

Story of the week
 

On a state visit to the US, Prime Minister Modi was hosted by President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill at an intimate dinner on Wednesday at the White House. On Thursday, he received a colourful White House South Lawn arrival ceremony, including a 21-gun salute, attended by 7,000 guests. He had one-on-one talks with Mr Biden and, later, the bilateral delegation-level talks.

 
On Thursday, the second day of the Prime Minister’s visit, India and the US upgraded their strategic partnership with the signing of agreements spanning mega defence deals, semiconductors, critical minerals, critical and emerging technology, artificial intelligence, quantum computing, telecommunications, and space cooperation.
 
“With this visit, Indian firms are announcing more than $2 billion in new investment in manufacturing and solar… proving that manufacturing in America is back,” Mr Biden said.
 
Mr Modi said “even the sky is not the limit” for India-US ties.
 
Mr Biden also said the US would put an Indian in space in 2024.

A flurry of deal announcements followed. General Electric’s aerospace arm announced a partnership with Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd to make advanced fighter jet engines for the Indian Air Force. Semiconductor giants, Micron Technology and Applied Materials, announced investments totalling $1.22 billion in India.

 
Silicon Valley’s biggest names descended on Washington Thursday as Mr Biden sought to strengthen tech industry ties between the US and India at a state dinner honouring Mr Modi.
 
The day before, Elon Musk said he planned to visit India next year to explore opportunities in electric mobility and the commercial space sector. Following his meeting in New York with Prime Minister Modi, the Tesla Motors CEO said the company would set up shop in India “as soon as humanly possible”.
 
In other news…
 
IndiGo, India’s largest airline, on Monday placed an order for 500 A320 family planes with Airbus, in the world’s largest single-tranche aircraft acquisition by the number of planes, all of them narrow-bodied. The airline operates 13,039 flights a week, 13.3 per cent more than a year ago.
 
Air India, which had announced its purchase of 470 planes in February — 250 with Airbus and 220 with Boeing — put the final seal on the $70 billion deal (at list price) on Tuesday.
 
At a time when the Reserve Bank of India has been underscoring the need for governance in commercial banks, six of 11 public sector banks do not have a non-executive chairman. Some of these posts have been vacant for more than two years.
 
Seventeen parties on Friday resolved to set their differences aside and fight the 2024 Lok Sabha elections unitedly to defeat the BJP. Addressing a joint press conference, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said the leaders would meet in the next few days to give a final shape to their plan.
 
Tech that: Word from the world of technology and start-ups
 
In signs of deepening trouble for Byju’s, its statutory auditor, Deloitte, resigned and said the edtech major was delaying filing financial statements. Separately, three of Byju’s’ board members reportedly resigned, though the company denied this.
 
Last heard, Byju's was asking the three global investors to reconsider their decision to quit its board.
 
The opening up of offices is leading to a spike in attrition rates, especially in tech companies. But though more people are quitting jobs across the board, the impact has been particularly hard on women.
 
Watch it: From The Morning Show
 
The meeting between Mr Modi and Mr Musk rekindled the hope Tesla will be in India “as soon as humanly possible”. Can Tesla do a Maruti for India’s EV ecosystem? Watch it here.
 
What is Suveen obsessing over?
 
Sometime in 1994, Andre Agassi was looking for a new coach. Nick Bollettieri, who had coached Mr Agassi since he was 13, had quit in not too amicable a fashion and Mr Agassi needed someone who could analyse his game and help him raise it. He and his manager met Brad Gilbert, who was nearing the end of his playing career.
 
The manager asked Mr Gilbert to analyse Mr Agassi’s game.
 
"You want me to be honest?” asked Mr Gilbert.
 
Please.
 
"Brutally honest?”
 
Don't hold back.
 
Mr Gilbert took an enormous swallow of his Bud Ice and presented “a careful, thorough, brutal-as-advertised summary of my flaws as a tennis player”, says Mr Agassi in his memoir, Open.
 
Long story short, Mr Agassi hired Mr Gilbert on the spot and, braving a dip in his game immediately afterwards, went on to have a great run at the top of men’s tennis, rising to world number one.
 
The Bites was reminded of this while admiring a social post by Sanjeev Bikhchandani, the entrepreneur and investor. In the post, Mr Bikhchandani recalls his convocation at IIM Ahmedabad 34 years ago. The speaker was V Krishnamurthy, the much-respected chairman of SAIL, who said all the right things.
 
Mr Bikhchandani says he does not remember a word of what Mr Krishnamurthy said. “I don’t think what he said made any difference to the lives of any of my classmates.”
 
He also recalled the convocation speech of the previous year, delivered by Dr Verghese Kurien, the NDDB Chairman. Dr Kurien was not polite.
 
He said this was not the Indian Institute of Management, this was the Indian Institute of Management for Shampoo Salesmen, and that the entire graduating class could look forward to a life of selling soap and shampoo. That was the limit of their aspiration and ambition. He called it a colossal waste of talent. He challenged the students to do something more meaningful with their lives and try to make a difference.
 
“By the end of it our ears were burning,” says Bikhchandani. “But guess which speech we remembered. And some of us did do something different. The class of 1989 has produced the most number of entrepreneurs in the history of IIM-A. Sometimes warm fuzzy convocation speeches don’t make lasting impact.”
 
This prompted the Bites to reach out to a professional friend who is on to his third career as a leadership coach.
 
How important is politeness as a quality in a leader?
 
The answer included many things. A leader has to inspire people to work towards defined goals, often navigate them from narrow, automated behaviours to something "larger" and "beyond themselves". For that, the leader will benefit from competence, diligence, integrity, clarity, courage, empathy, deep listening, influence, and vision.
 
“But politeness? I am not sure. At worst, it can arouse suspicion and seem manipulative,” said the leadership coach.
 
Then he added the punchline: “The opposite of politeness is not rude; it is straightforward.”
 
This is Suveen signing off. Please send comments, news, or views about anything — from 21-gun salutes to straightforward leaders — to suveen.sinha@bsmail.in.
 
(Suveen Sinha is Chief Content Editor at Business Standard)