IIM Mumbai hosted an enriching session by Dr R Balasubramaniam (Baluji) as part of its newly launched course on Indic Leadership, an initiative that seeks to engage students with India’s civilizational wisdom and explore its relevance to contemporary leadership and management.

Drawing upon ideas from his works Power Within: The Leadership Legacy of Narendra Modi and his new book, The Inner Charioteer, Baluji invited students to look at leadership from the inside out—beginning with self-awareness, self-mastery, purpose, and the ability to govern oneself before seeking to lead others.

The metaphor of the “Inner Charioteer” provided a compelling lens to reflect upon the forces that guide our choices and actions. The session connected Indic ideas of inner governance, dharma, seva, and lokasangraha with contemporary questions of leadership, responsibility, and collective well-being.

The session witnessed enthusiastic participation from more than 250 students and was also telecast live, enabling the conversation to reach a wider audience.

IIM Mumbai expresses its sincere gratitude to Dr R Balasubramaniam for sharing his insights and for contributing to this important academic conversation.

The Institute also acknowledges the guidance and encouragement of Prof. Manoj Kumar Tiwari, Director, IIM Mumbai, in enabling initiatives that bring Indian knowledge traditions into meaningful dialogue with contemporary management education.

The programme was coordinated by Prof. Upasna A Agarwal and Prof. Nikhil K. Mehta, IIM Mumbai.

As IIM Mumbai takes forward its journey with Indic Leadership, the endeavour is not merely to look to the past, but to engage with India's knowledge traditions to ask a distinctly contemporary question:

How can we lead others meaningfully unless we first learn to lead ourselves?