90 Hour Workweek | 'I Love Staring At My Wife': Anand Mahindra's Dig At L&T Chairman

My wife is wonderful, I love staring at her, I spend more time...

This is a challenge that I'm often asked about — 'Do you have an office that manages it?' If anyone's read my tweets, if you think my office can write like that, then I've got a fabulous team who lives inside my head. I don't know why people even ask that. I want to tell people I'm on X, on social media, not because I'm lonely — my wife is wonderful, I love staring at her — I'm not here to make friends. I'm here because people don't understand it is an amazing business tool. In one platform I get feedback from 11 million people. If I asked any research firm to get me a sample of 11 million, do you know what they charge me? I once asked Microsoft to create a cockpit for me that tells me what's happening in my factory, and they said a million dollars. I said I can't do it. Then Twitter came along and it was free. So everybody out there has a mobile camera.

I'll give you just two examples. A person tweeted to me saying, 'I want to thank you. My girlfriend and I were at a concert in Nashik and she got sick and was throwing up right outside the wall of your factory. The security officer came out, helped us, got her water, and I just wanted to thank you — that's a wonderful gesture instead of trying to chase us away.' So I called up the factory manager and said, 'Find out who this chowkidar is. I want you to felicitate him in front of people, give him some flowers from me, and say that's the culture I want Mahindra to have.' Now, you talk about HR — what do you think those people were thinking? And what was the message I sent about what culture we wanted? How do you find another tool to do that? That's why I'm on it. Again, I'm not on it because I need friends.

On a light-hearted note, they should use AI to upskill themselves — go on to ChatGPT, it'll probably tell you how to upskill. I'm not one of those people who is saying there aren't risks. Obviously there are risks. We run a lot of schools and I was chairing a board meeting where they were talking about AI and we have to set up guidelines now in schools using tools to detect when a student is using ChatGPT for answering essays or questions. By the way, I hope none of you use ChatGPT for your essays — there are tools to find out if you did. Those kinds of safeguards have to be done. But having said that, from the time fire was created, somebody could have sat down after a caveman rubbed two stones together and created fire and said, 'Oh my God, fire could destroy us, let's kill this tool.' Every time there has been a technological advantage — from the time Gutenberg invented the press — people have found ways of envisioning a very dark future. Yes, every technology has a dark side, but think about Star Wars: do you want to be on the dark side or on the other side? I think AI is probably the best tool for upskilling India. It will enable our young people to become the best in the world. The answer lies in AI and technology and digital connectivity.

I'm wondering what kind of trap she's laying for me here with that question. We have an ace politician here, the minister — we should ask him that question about what political awareness people should have. But look, I am never happy when a young person tells me they're not interested in politics — 'I'm never going to go in, it's about corruption, it's about this.' I'm not telling you to become a politician. What she asked was how politically aware they should be. Let's keep that away from elections, politicians, parties. Politically aware? Of course you have to be. If this room has got the future of India, you can't be politically unaware. You have to be aware, you have to make your votes, you have to make the right choice, because you earn the governments that you bring in. Don't blame anyone else, don't blame the government — you people decide who rules us, who creates our policies, who is going to lead us to development. To me, political awareness first and foremost comes from casting your vote and making sure you have a hand in determining who is going to run this country. That much awareness I would ask everyone to have.