Stop Cutting the Roots. Nurture the Fruits: Gen Z and India’s New Economic Model
NV Paulose, Chairman, Global TV +91 98441 82044
India stands at an important economic crossroads. For decades, much of our development conversation has revolved around scarcity, competition, employment, investment and the extraction of maximum value from limited resources. Businesses are often encouraged to reduce costs, individuals are pushed to compete for a limited number of opportunities, and success is frequently measured by how much one can acquire rather than how much one can create for others.
This does not mean that the entire Indian economy is exploitative, nor does it mean that competition, capital or industrial growth are unnecessary. They remain important. But there is a growing need to question an economic mindset that becomes too narrow when it treats people merely as labour, consumers or sources of revenue.
Gen Z has an opportunity to introduce a different philosophy: move from exploitation to exploration, from scarcity to possibility, and from cutting the roots to nurturing the fruits. The idea is simple. A tree that is repeatedly cut down cannot provide a sustainable harvest. A healthy tree produces fruit because its roots are protected, its soil is nourished and its branches are allowed to grow. Economies work in much the same way. Human relationships, knowledge, trust, skills, local communities and institutions are the roots. Businesses, careers, innovations, revenues and prosperity are the fruits. If we want more fruits, we must stop destroying the roots.
1. From Exploitation to Exploration
A narrow economic model asks: “How much can we extract?” A broad economic model asks: “What can we discover, develop and create together?” That distinction is fundamental. Exploitation focuses on immediate advantage. Exploration focuses on possibilities. Exploitation sees a customer primarily as a transaction. Exploration sees a customer as a relationship. Exploitation sees an employee as a cost. Exploration sees a person’s capabilities as an asset waiting to be developed. Exploitation looks at what already exists and asks how to capture more of it. Exploration looks at what does not yet exist and asks how it can be created.
This shift is especially relevant to Gen Z because today’s young Indians have access to tools that previous generations could not easily imagine. Knowledge is available online. Digital platforms connect local talent to global markets. Artificial intelligence can multiply the productivity of individuals and small teams. Digital payments have reduced barriers to commerce. Social media allows creators and entrepreneurs to build communities without owning traditional media infrastructure.
Global TV’s recent thinking similarly emphasizes opportunity creation rather than simply opportunity seeking. Its Career Revolution framework argues that individuals should not see themselves merely as job seekers, but as creators of value and participants in teams, enterprises and communities. This is where the idea of a broad-minded economic model becomes powerful.
India does not necessarily need millions of people waiting for the same type of job. It needs millions of people discovering different ways to create value. A village youth can become a digital service provider. A retired professional can become a mentor. A student can become a researcher, content creator or community organiser. A teacher can build an online learning network. A local entrepreneur can connect producers with customers beyond the local market. The economic question changes from “Who will employ me?” to “What value can I create, and with whom can I create it?”
2. Zero Capital Does Not Mean Zero Value
The phrase “zero capital, big revenue” should not be misunderstood as a promise that money can magically be created without effort, capability or risk. No sustainable business model can operate without some combination of time, knowledge, relationships, technology, trust or resources. But it is increasingly possible to start economic activity without large financial capital. That is a major transformation.
A person with a smartphone, domain knowledge and communication skills can provide services. A group of students can create a digital publication without building a printing press. A local network can generate referral revenue by connecting customers with hotels, travel providers, educational institutions or service businesses. A professional can package knowledge into training, consulting or digital products. A community can identify unused resources and connect them with people who need them.
Global TV’s own models illustrate this principle through microeconomic interventions, activity-unit partnerships, referral models and collaborative revenue structures. Its approach emphasizes discovering dormant assets, forming small working units and creating revenue around existing capabilities rather than waiting for massive investments. This is not really “zero capital” in the literal sense. It is low-financial-capital entrepreneurship. The capital may instead be human capital, social capital, intellectual capital and digital capital. That distinction matters because India has enormous quantities of these forms of capital.
Millions of people possess skills that are underutilized. Millions have professional relationships that are never converted into productive collaborations. Thousands of institutions have unused infrastructure at particular times of the day or year. Villages possess cultural knowledge, agricultural expertise, tourism potential and local stories. Cities contain professionals with knowledge that could be shared with smaller communities. The opportunity is to connect these scattered resources. The future entrepreneur may therefore not begin with a factory, office or large bank loan. The entrepreneur may begin with a question: “What resources already exist around me, and what useful problem can I solve by connecting them?” That is exploration.
3. Stop Cutting the Roots; Nurture the Fruits
Economic development becomes sustainable when the system strengthens the people who produce value. This is where the metaphor of roots and fruits becomes more than a slogan. Roots represent education, family, community, culture, ethics, relationships, health, trust and accumulated knowledge. Fruits represent income, innovation, businesses, employment, prosperity and social impact.
If we sacrifice the roots for immediate fruit, eventually the tree weakens. The same happens when society celebrates revenue while ignoring the conditions that create sustainable revenue. If workers are continuously exhausted, if young people are trained only to chase salaries, if communities lose their social cohesion, if institutions destroy trust, or if businesses pursue short-term extraction at the expense of long-term relationships, the economic tree becomes fragile.
Global TV’s Endowment Studios material explicitly uses the roots-and-fruits metaphor to connect tradition, community, relationships, values and aspirations with the achievements that emerge from them. This suggests a different definition of economic progress. A successful enterprise should not merely ask, “How much did we earn?” It should also ask: Did we develop people? Did we create new capabilities? Did we strengthen relationships? Did we create opportunities for others? Did we leave the ecosystem stronger than we found it? That is the difference between extracting value and multiplying value.
A healthy economic ecosystem should allow one person’s success to become another person’s opportunity. A student gets trained. The student becomes a contributor. The contributor becomes a team leader. The team develops a service. The service generates revenue. The revenue creates more roles. Those roles develop more people. This is a cycle of multiplication rather than extraction. Global TV describes a similar philosophy through its idea that conversations can become collaborations, collaborations can become teams, teams can create roles and roles can generate revenue. That is how economic fruits become seeds for the next generation.
4. Gen Z Must Become Builders of the New Economy
The greatest responsibility of Gen Z is not to complain about the limitations of the existing economic system. It is to demonstrate that better models can work. Criticism has value. Accountability is essential. But permanent criticism without construction becomes another form of helplessness. Gen Z has the tools to move from protest to production. Instead of asking only why employment opportunities are inadequate, young people can experiment with new forms of work. Instead of waiting for institutions to solve every problem, they can form small teams. Instead of treating competitors as enemies, they can build networks of complementary capabilities.
Imagine a college where students do not merely prepare for interviews but form small enterprises. Imagine villages where local stories become media assets and tourism opportunities. Imagine retired professionals mentoring young entrepreneurs. Imagine businesses sharing unused resources with emerging ventures. Imagine thousands of micro-enterprises connected through digital platforms.
None of these ideas requires every young person to become a conventional entrepreneur. Some can become researchers. Some can become skilled professionals. Some can become teachers, artists, technicians, administrators or community builders.
The central principle is value creation. Global TV’s recent “Beyond Protest” argument makes a similar case: India’s young people can redirect energy from endless confrontation toward building institutions, companies, technologies, educational platforms, healthcare solutions and communities.
This is the economic revolution India needs. Not a revolution that destroys everything inherited from the past, but one that examines the roots, preserves what is healthy, removes what is harmful and grows new branches. The future will belong to ecosystems rather than isolated individuals. Collaboration will become an economic advantage. Relationships will become productive infrastructure. Knowledge will become increasingly portable. Technology will reduce the cost of starting many forms of enterprise. Small teams will be able to accomplish what once required large organisations.
Therefore, the Gen Z mission should be clear: Stop cutting the roots. Nurture the fruits.
Protect human dignity. Develop skills. Strengthen communities. Connect people. Discover dormant resources. Build relationships. Experiment with low-capital models. Create revenue without destroying trust. Turn knowledge into opportunity. Turn conversations into collaborations. Turn collaborations into enterprises. India does not have a shortage of people. It has a shortage of sufficiently connected opportunities. It does not lack talent. It often lacks systems that allow talent to discover its economic potential. The next economic model must therefore be broad-minded, participatory and exploratory.
The goal should not simply be to make a few people richer. The goal should be to create ecosystems in which more people can become capable of creating value. That is the real promise of low-capital, high-possibility economic models. And that is where Gen Z can make its defining contribution: not merely inheriting the economic tree, not merely complaining about its branches, but becoming the generation that strengthens its roots and multiplies its fruits.
