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.

You can contribute first of all by deciding to opt for a manufacturing job and career rather than a food delivery one. Please make manufacturing a choice. I'll tell you one of the things I have learned — I started my career on the shop floor of our alloy steel plant and then I worked for a year in the automobile plant before going to business school. There is nothing as exciting as manufacturing. People see it as some back-office work, as if it's some kind of dungeon. If you haven't been to a factory, and to a modern one, please go and visit. It is the most exciting place. Just a couple of days ago I posted a video of our new plant for our electric vehicles. Just take a look at it — it's like an opera, it's like a ballet. When you look at the robots, when you look at the people, when you look at the precision — there's drama in it. Manufacturing is probably one of the most exciting jobs you can have. My appeal to all of you is, please, and borrowing from President Trump: make manufacturing great again.

Final question — hold her to it, please make sure that it's the final question.

That's what I call a rhetorical question, because you know the answer. This is the difference — why am I passionate? I just actually posted on social media why I was excited about coming here. Because we are talking about electric cars, renewable energy — this is energy, this is renewable energy. My batteries get recharged with younger people. That's how I keep my mind and my spirit young, by interacting with younger people. I was asking my handler just now whether it would be possible to walk around and take questions and walk up to people — that's what I like to do. But it's a formal inauguration, I couldn't do that. To be honest, platforms like this allow people to network, they allow them to get the resources they need, the support they need. And frankly, above all, if you heard all the noise they made — platforms like this make them passionate.