One of the most critical questions that continues to echo across boardrooms, policy think tanks, and risk forums is this:
"Where do we turn to strengthen the risk and governance backbone of our growing economy?"
Over the past decade, India has made remarkable progress in digitization, financial inclusion, entrepreneurship, and global trade. However, these gains have often outpaced the maturity of our governance systems. While the ambition is bold, the institutional scaffolding to safeguard that ambition still feels fragmented — especially in the domain of risk management and corporate governance.
Take for instance the collapse of IL&FS in India. Despite being a shadow of the Lehman moment for Indian financial markets, its downfall wasn’t a result of sophisticated fraud or a black swan event. It was a failure of board vigilance, risk awareness, and early-warning systems. Similarly, Wirecard in Germany — once celebrated as Europe’s fintech star — fell because of blind spots in oversight, accountability, and ethical leadership.
These weren’t just financial failures. They were failures of governance ecosystems.
In both cases, individuals raised flags, internal reports hinted at concerns, and markets suspected irregularities — but nothing concrete moved. Why? Because risk management is still often seen as a support function, not a leadership mindset. There’s a vacuum where continuous capability-building, ethical reinforcement, and independent cross-sector collaboration should exist.
India urgently needs an institutional mechanism — not just for regulation, but for professionalization of risk and governance as a discipline.
This is where platforms like GARIME are stepping in — to create a space where risk professionals, corporates, academia, government, and regulators can collaborate, learn, co-create, and build a shared vision for ethical, resilient, and future-ready organizations.
More importantly, such efforts are attempting to do what existing silos cannot:
- Standardize capability benchmarks across industries
- Offer ethical mentoring and career guidance for aspiring professionals
- Facilitate policy-level insights from practitioners
- Foster knowledge exchange through learning labs, simulations, and real-world case studies
- Build trust with society by enhancing transparency in governance
Risk isn’t just a checkbox. It’s a culture, a capability, and a commitment. And in a country as aspirational and complex as India, we cannot afford to wait for the next collapse to initiate reform.
We need organizations that can serve as the connective tissue between the risk community, industry leaders, and the regulatory state — to create a future where resilience is embedded, not just enforced.
If you’re a professional, educator, policymaker, or student interested in shaping this movement, it’s time to contribute.
Reach out at connect@garime.org and become a part of the change.
By Jitender Arora |Founder and Partner- Beyond RisX| Non- Executive Director | Board Member| Fractional Chief Risk Officer|