Adil Zainulbhai

I’m the former Chairman of the Capacity Building Commission of India, set up in 2021 by the Hon’ble Prime Minister to strengthen the capacity of India’s civil service. Before that, I chaired the Quality Council of India.I retired as Chairman of McKinsey India in 2014 after 34 years with the firm, the last 10 of them in India. Before returning home, I led McKinsey’s Washington office and founded its Minneapolis office.Today I chair the Boards of Governors of IIT Ropar and IIT Goa, and sit on the boards of Reliance Retail, Network18, and Cipla, along with the board of ONDC. I’m also an active board member of the Piramal Foundation, supporting its ground-level health and development work across India’s aspirational districts.Across all of this, I try to bring together what I’ve learned on both sides of the India-US relationship and both sides of the public-private divide — government and industry, policy and execution. I write here about what that lens reveals: visits to the ground, conversations with leaders across sectors, and the occasional argument for how India’s institutions need to change to meet the moment.