Economic salvation

The Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP) Venture Capital Scheme advances loans on soft terms to budding entrepreneurs. Sadly, at times, there are no viable projects forthcoming.

In the days of our very successful Parsi pioneers there were no venture capitalists to support them. England had merchant venturers even in the days of Queen Elizabeth I, while India had none. Our pioneers made up for lack of such a facility with their strong code of Zoroastrian ethics, an infinite capacity to take risks and the ability to work very hard.

China was the world’s biggest gangland then. The language was a formidable barrier, as in Japan, but Parsis throve in both those countries and amassed wealth. East Africa was another strange land then. Man knew more about the moon than about the Dark Continent (as geographer Marsden called it), but we had the British government and the English language to fall back on. Aden was no less strange, but we thrived there as well. We succeeded everywhere for we had the will and the courage to succeed.

Venturesomeness comes from within us, while venture capitalists are the external props. Even today Parsi brand equity is looked up to not only in India but even in England where managements and the unions of Corus, Jaguar and Land Rover have accepted Tatas’ sense of fair play.

I am not suggesting that there are no economic offenders among the Parsis, but those can be counted on the cuts of any one finger. Our business strength is rooted in our religion but we do not know how to exploit that. We must relearn how to catch time by the forelock. Are we prepared to work for 12 to 14 hours a day? The problem is that we have gone soft. To claim that national dishonesty is a deterrent to us is but an apology for failure.

B. T. DASTUR