Business EconomyPosted at: Sep 19 2026 9:56AM


India cannot afford war, must prioritise energy security and peace: BCIC's Prashant Reddi

Bengaluru, Sep 19 (UNI) India cannot afford war and must focus on energy security, inflation control and strategic autonomy amid a rapidly polarising geopolitical environment, BCIC Senior Vice President Prashant Reddi said on Saturday.
Addressing the 4th BCIC Leadership Summit 2026 here, Reddi said the nature of leadership was undergoing a fundamental change as geopolitics, technology, sustainability and shifting markets created new challenges for businesses.
“Globalisation has become nationalisation. It has become a bipolar world. We don’t have to choose and take sides,” he said.
Referring to India's engagement with countries on opposing sides of global conflicts, Reddi said, “Look at our Prime Minister, who is friends of both Iran and Israel, Russia and Ukraine as well. What is more important is to secure energy to support a large population and control inflation. India cannot afford war and we certainly want peace.”
He said businesses could no longer treat change as a temporary disruption but had to build the ability to continuously adapt.
“The question for leaders is not simply how to keep up with change. The real question is how to lead through change,” he said.
Reddi cited the transformation of companies such as Bajaj, Piramal Group, IBM, 3M and Reliance to underline the importance of reinvention, saying organisations that failed to change could become “extinct and forgotten”.
He said leadership today must go beyond immediate business objectives and encompass innovation, people, sustainability, resilience and the wider impact of corporate decisions.
“Success will increasingly depend not just on how fast we grow, but on how intelligently, responsibly and sustainably we grow,” he said.
On artificial intelligence, Reddi said businesses had no choice but to embrace the technology while remaining alert to the risks of excessive dependence on machines.
“We have to embrace AI and avail its benefits, and at the same time be concerned about the negative aspects of losing control to a machine. Humans should prevail over machines,” he said.
Using a “duck and chicken” analogy, Reddi said effective leadership required the ability to switch between leading from the front and empowering teams from behind.
“When a team is facing a brand-new challenge, a tight deadline or uncertainty, they need a trailblazer. When a team is experienced and skilled, they need freedom to explore while the leader ensures that the larger picture remains secure,” he said.
“A good leader isn't stuck in one position. They have the emotional intelligence to know when to be the duck and when to be the chicken. The goal is to be both,” he said.
Reddi also stressed that businesses were not merely engines of economic growth but institutions that develop talent, create ideas, adopt technologies and generate new opportunities.
“Leadership today must look beyond the organisation and understand the larger ecosystem in which the organisation operates,” he said.
He said the summit's discussions on Viksit Bharat 2047, green leadership, institution building, retail and resilience reflected the wider responsibilities facing corporate leaders.
“We need to deliver results, but we also need to build capability. We need to innovate, but we also need to build trust. We need to compete, but we also need to collaborate. We need to grow, but we also need to think about the impact of that growth,” he said.
Reddi said the ultimate test of leadership was not the ability to speak about the future but the decisions taken today to shape it.
“Leadership is not demonstrated by how much we speak about the future. It is demonstrated by the decisions we take today to shape that future,” he said.
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Tags: #India cannot afford war# must prioritise energy security and peace: BCIC's Prashant Reddi
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