On the 15th of August, the IIT Alumni Council released the first volume in the Vishwaguru Series. Vishwaguru in Sanskrit means a world-guide. It is a rare recognition from the IIT Alumni peers.
As recognised by the Council, a Vishwaguru is someone whose body of work is marked by high impact and benefits a large section of the society. The Series is built around the idea of recognising individuals whose work has created enduring capacity, widened participation and contributed to shared flourishing.
It is not an award, but a recognition of responsibility and stewardship visible through the arc and direction of a person’s work. This book traces the life, work and institutional stewardship of Ashish Chauhan, one of India’s most consequential architects of modern financial markets. The book examines Chauhan’s journey not merely as a corporate or financial leader, but through a wider civilisational lens: how individuals create institutions whose consequences extend far beyond their own careers and generations.
IThe IIT Alumni Council aspires to catalyse India’s technological renaissance. The Council works to rally the considerable resources – both financial and technological – of the global IIT alumni ecosystem to catalyse population scale interventions in the social sector in India. Through such initiatives, IIT Alumni Council intends to act as a network and as a bridge between various providers of knowledge, wealth, information, wisdom, ideas, expertise and entrepreneurship to promote appropriate technological solutions to known social challenges at the national level.
These solutions are then taken to market through the startup and venture capital framework. The long-term objective is to spawn a robust deep science ecosystem that is self-sustaining, fuelled by risk capital and sustained by capital markets.
When I was reading the superbly written book by Mrinalini Gupta and Christina Watson – what shook me was the clarity and objectivity with which an external independent person can look at a person, situation or institution. I have known NSE since its birth. I also knew of their VSAT network from the days of its inception.
But due to familiarity with the organisation as well as with Ashish Chauhan – I failed to connect the dots to actually realise what had happened. As I read the book from end to end, it was probably more a case of doership than serendipity.
I thought I knew the subject, the organisation and the steward very well. But when brilliance becomes expected, it ceases to impress.
Like one of the leading global book reviewers mentioned, “this steward is like a cat. No matter how you throw it, it turns in mid air and lands perfectly on its feet. Ready to run. And in fact using the acceleration from the fall to actually run faster ”
Do read the book. The first couple of thousand copies were pre sold – but it should be at your favourite book store next week.Activate to view larger image,
