A memorable book

SIR M V's THOUGHTS

Sir M. Visvesvaraya was the Chief Engineer and later the administrator ("Diwan") for the erstwhile Mysore area in India in the early part of the 20th century. Sir M. V. was born on 15-Sep-1861. For his contribution to India, he was awarded its highest civilian award the Bharat Ratna. 15-Sep is celebrated as Engineer's Day in his honour. He has a patent on automatic sluice gates, built the KRS dam near Mysuru, enabled the city of Hyderabad to prevent floods and established industries and institutions. Above all, it is his personal integrity and character that stand out. https://www.firstpost.com/india/on-engineers-day-heres-remembering-m-visvesvaraya-whose-name-is-synonymous-with-vision-and-progress-3006056.html describes his achievements and his character.

During my commute to work, I read his autobiography "Memoirs of my working life". What interested me most in the book professionally was his idea of "efficiency audit". From the book:

"The " Efficiency Audit " Branch, which was attached to the Secretariat, did useful service in systematising work in Government offices and departments, in compiling rules and standing orders for various offices and in drawing up a comprehensive scheme for the issue and speedy preparation of Departmental and Office Manuals and for keeping them revised and up to date. It made some progress in standardising inspections and preparing rules for maintaining proper records in offices."

The idea is similar to process audits with respect to standards like ISO 9001! I was struck by the wisdom in his words.

I put one of his quotes on my whiteboard:

"The foundation of business, as we know it, is credit. Credit depends upon confidence, and confidence upon character."

The book is full of relevant and thought provoking ideas. Considering that he wrote it in the '50s, it shows how well he understood the national and international situation. The importance of access to information is seen here:

"No village should fail to subscribe to one or two well-conducted vernacular newspapers to keep itself informed of what is going on in the outside world."

There are more gems, here is a quote describing how he recognised the importance of innovation and entrepreneurship:

"The country must therefore regard innovators, experimenters, starters of enterprises, as peculiarly useful citizens and go out of its way to furnish them a congenial and hospitable environment."

Here are his views about the purpose of a university:

"The general object in the broadest sense is to encourage learning, to promote higher education, to create a centre of culture, to light a torch that would dispel the gloom of ignorance from the remotest corners of the country."

I finished reading the book available via https://archive.org/details/VisvesvarayaAutobiography/ on his birth anniversary. I am glad I read it!