By:

Quaid Najmi

4 January 2025 at 3:26:24 pm

Thackerays’ ‘Taandav’ for trees, tigers

AI generated image Mumbai: Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) President Raj Thackeray launched a sharp attack on the government for the systematic degradation of the state’s environment under the garb of development, even as the climate change poses a direct threat to the environment, economy, agriculture, public health and the future of both rural and urban centres. Questioning the state government’s claims of having planted millions of trees, he rued how the World Environment Day has been...

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AI generated image Mumbai: Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) President Raj Thackeray launched a sharp attack on the government for the systematic degradation of the state’s environment under the garb of development, even as the climate change poses a direct threat to the environment, economy, agriculture, public health and the future of both rural and urban centres. Questioning the state government’s claims of having planted millions of trees, he rued how the World Environment Day has been reduced to an annual ritual of tree-planting drives and clicking selfies for social media, though 90 pc of the saplings don’t survive even a day. “Only the government knows where those trees really are,” said Raj sternly. He recalled a "Blueprint of Maharashtra’s Development" he had proposed in 2015, in which he advocated how development without environmental sensitivity is hollow. Justifying, he said that the consequences are visible where roads, bridges and infrastructure projects are hailed as achievements, but even a short spell of rainfall can paralyze entire cities. Referring to recent reports on farmers returning from the fields after 10 am due to the scorching heat, Raj said that the worsening climate crisis has become an everyday reality. Citing official statistics, Raj claimed that extreme heat has caused productivity losses of nearly USD 159 billion and slashing of 160 billion work-hours annually in recent years. He mentioned the World Bank estimates that India’s GDP could plummet by 2.5-4.5 pc while 57 pc of the country’s districts sheltering 76 pc of the population stare at serious climate-related crises. Taking a swipe, he said while the governments boast about growth figures and economical rankings, they are silent on the staggering costs of environmental destruction. He questioned the development model “whether flooded cities, washed-away crops and unbearable summers” genuinely indicate progress. Claiming that Maharashtra was increasingly becoming unliveable for upto 8 months in a year, he said excessive monsoon rains disrupt rural life and urban floods cripple cities, while extreme heat make normal life a torture in summers in both urban-rural areas. Targeting the Centre, Raj alleged that nearly 173,984 hectares of forest lands were diverted in the past 11 years for mining and infrastructure projects to benefit the PM’s single favourite Adani Group. He said that these lands amount to 1,730 sqkm, or equivalent to the area of 16 Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP) that is spread over barely 104 sqkm. Dissolve state wildlife board: Aaditya Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aditya Thackeray has accused the Maharashtra government for issuing a permit to carry out mining activity in the sensitive tiger corridor between the Tadoba-Andhari and Indravati sanctuaries housing the big striped cats. In a strongly-worded letter to the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) Member-Secretary Sanjay Kumar, Thackeray sought his immediate personal intervention, sacking the Maharashtra State Board for Wild-Life (SBWL), revoking the permit, and probe against the Chief Wildlife Warden & Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (PCCF) M. Srinivasa Reddy for the alleged lacunae. Aditya’s two-pager says the permit has been granted for “scientific exploration and excavation/systematic recovery of low-grade iron ore in existing mines in villages Hedri, Bande, Parsalgondi and Round Parsalgondi, in the Etapalli taluka of Gadchiroli district”. Last January, Aditya – MLA from Worli – had first raised the issue saying that the proposed mine would create only 120 jobs, including 32 permanent, and the estimated output is pegged at 1.1 million tons in a year. Referring to two letters of Reddy – on April 28 and May 21 – the SS (UBT) leader claimed that in communications to the state government, the PCCF had changed his stance on the issue. Aditya said that in the first letter, Reddy had effectively opposed the government plans for mining activity but in the second letter, he took a somersault, ostensibly due to government pressures or some commercial interests, “the U-turn is disgraceful and detrimental to India’s national interest” – and this abrupt shift in stance must be investigated thoroughly. In view of the contrary stance of the PCCF Reddy, entrusted with protecting the wildlife but failing to defend the NTCA and NBWL, point to serious malfunctioning of the SBWL, and hence it must be dissolved, besides reviewing all its decisions in the past three years, particularly those pertaining to hazardous activities in sensitive areas, demanded Aditya. 444 tigers roam in 11,000 sq.km As per the Status of Tiger Report (2002), and the Maharashtra Economic Survey 2025-2026, the state boasts of 444 tigers prowling in the wild along with other menacing creatures. The state’s total protected wildlife network of 88 Notified Areas of National Parks, Sanctuaries, and Conservation Reserves - including 6 dedicated to the striped big cats – is spread over 11,092 sq. kms as per current data.

Reputation Is the Real Asset

Rahul Kulkarni
Mar 22
3 min read

Your reputation is the only KPI everyone tracks without data

In a legacy MSME, people don’t follow strategy. They follow evidence of who you are, especially when things get messy. And the evidence doesn’t come from your PowerPoint. It comes from your pattern.

Inherited seat: People will give you initial respect. They’ll still test whether you’re consistent or emotional.
Hired seat: People will judge you faster. Your reputation starts at zero, and every week adds or subtracts.
Promoted seat: People already know you. Your challenge is different: will you become fair, or will you become “selective”?

Different seats. Same truth: your reputation becomes your currency.

Credit Test

Let me explain this using something everyone understands. In every industrial area, there’s that one supplier who gives credit. Not because he is a charity. Because he knows who pays, who delays, and who creates drama.

Two businesses can buy the same material at the same rate. But their terms will be different. One gets 30 days credit with a smile. The other gets “cash only”. Why? Reputation.

And reputation is not a speech. It is a track record of small actions:

paid on time, even when inconvenient
didn’t play games
didn’t shout when there was an issue
escalated only when needed
respected the supplier’s reality

That’s how your team sees you too.

Why this matters?

Here is the war most incoming leaders lose:

They think they need one big intervention, one big restructuring, one big system rollout, one big “strictness moment”. But legacy MSMEs don’t change because of one big moment.

They change because people decide, over time, that you are predictable enough to follow.

In game theory language, your leadership is not a one-time deal. It’s a “repeated game”. Meaning: you meet the same people again and again, and they adjust based on your last move.

You don’t need to use the term. Just notice the reality:

The same sales head will meet you 30 times.
The same factory supervisor will face you in 20 small crises.
The same old-guard person will test your tone repeatedly.
The same vendor will watch if you stand by your word.

In a repeated setting, people aren’t asking, “Is this decision logical?” They’re asking, “What kind of person is this leader? What happens if I trust them?” Robert Axelrod studied this through famous experiments on cooperation. His simple finding – again, in plain language – was: in repeated interactions, cooperation wins when it is backed by consistent, proportionate enforcement.

Not softness. Not aggression. Consistency.

Leadership Mistake

Most incoming leaders swing between two bad extremes:

Extreme 1: The nice leader

avoids confrontation
adjusts every rule for every person
“lets it go” to maintain harmony

Result: people like you, but don’t follow you.

Extreme 2: The strict leader

overreacts to first failure
makes examples publicly
escalates fast

Result: compliance for a week, and then smarter avoidance, politics, and silence.

Both extremes destroy reputation. Because reputation is built on one thing: people can predict your response.

Think of it like a supplier again:

If a customer delays once, he doesn’t ban them for life.
But he also doesn’t keep giving full credit like nothing happened.
He adjusts terms. Calmly.

That calm adjustment is the whole point.

In an MSME, the leader who wins is not the one who “wins arguments”.

It’s the one who builds a reputation for:

fairness
consistency
low drama
clear consequences
quick forgiveness when behavior improves

This is what makes people cooperate without fear.

Field Test

For the next 30 days, try this rule: Cooperate first + proportional response.

Meaning:

Start with trust. Give people a clean first chance.
When someone breaks the deal, respond but don’t explode.
Make the response proportional and visible. Not humiliating. Just clear.
If they correct behavior, reset. Don’t keep punishing forever.

(The author is a co-founder at PPS Consulting. He is a business transformation consultant. He could be reached at rahul@ppsconsulting.biz.)

1 Comment

dm niftytrader

Mar 24

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