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Just came across Basab Pradhan’s Blog via Sambhar Mafia. So he’s one of the rarer breed on the blogosphere today - the Indian CEO Blogger. Apart from Rajesh Jain, there are almost no Indian CEOs blogging. First, Basab’s got a few good articles straightaway - one that wonders why Navi Mumbai’s rise has to be the result of Mumbai’s meltdown, or an intersting one about why passengers hurry to disembark from a plane at Bangalore airport, but not at Delhi airpor t!

Back to the question I raised - why we don’t have Indian CEOs blogging - and don’t even get started on “American CEOs don’t blog either” - there’s nothing that says our CEOs ought not to blog if their American counterparts don’t. But why would Management blog? An CEO - that is, top management - blogging, can be a very effective form of market differentiation. Apart from conveying to everyone where the company’s headed and why, a CEO blogging gives the impression of a very open organization - and that can be a very powerful tactic. Indians perceive India Inc. with awe, but also with a certain degree of detachment, almost like a form of “us and them”. Who wouldn’t want to know the real Naresh Goyal, the real Sunil Mittal, what Nandan Nilekani’s thinking these days? Jerry Rao of mPhasis writes fairly regularly in the Indian Express - rarely about the IT industry, mainly on policy matters and reform. That, in my opinion, gives both Jerry and mPhasis a human face. If Jerry were to start blogging about matters in his industry as well, it would work tremendously in his, his company’s and his customers’ favour. Imagine Naresh Goyal writing about global aviation, business trends and his vision for India’s future, and Vijay Mallya on the Indian alcohol/airline market, Government policies, how the industry is subverting the Government’s ban on alcohol on TV via smart advertising, about serial entrepreneurship…

There’s a huge audience for these blogs, certainly. There are far more Indian bloggers than I ever could have imagined - the Indian blogosphere is a healthy and vibrant community. Most of them have good content too, so they’re definitely right-thinking, rational people. Besides, businesses of most companies today aren’t limited to India. If a company’s products and services have a global market, it follows that readership for Mr. CEO’s blog will be global too.

By the way, a few American tech company do have a blogging “face”. For instance, Microsoft has (like him or hate him) Robert Scoble, Yahoo has Jeremy Zawodny and Russell Beattie, IBM has Ed Brill for its Lotus product line, Novell has Nat Friedman , Miguel de Icaza, Sun has Jonathan Schwartz - that’s helped each of these organizations build up a community following. But here’s the opportunity for us to race ahead and build a vibrant online thought community with perspectives from our corporate leaders!