Leadership
Leadership Courage Under Constraint
Decision-making when power asymmetry, personal risk, and institutional opacity are all high — what the case reveals about the conditions under which leaders act, and those under which they don't.
New Delhi, India · IIM Ahmedabad Alumnus · Petitioner, UN OHCHR
Vikas
Gupta
Leadership, Governance & Disability Speaker
Vikas speaks to MBA and executive audiences on leadership, governance, and institutional risk — anchored in his own case as one of only three disabled Indians to bring an individual communication before the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. The session functions as a leadership case study, not a personal narrative.
About
An entrepreneur and IIM Ahmedabad alumnus who, after experiencing institutional failure firsthand, converted that experience into a live governance and leadership case now used with MBA and executive audiences globally. His dual track record — a self-represented constitutional petition before the Delhi High Court, and a parallel individual communication to the UN OHCHR on India's non-compliance with the UNCRPD — gives the session an analytical rigour most leadership cases don't have.
Designed for courses in
- Leadership & organisational behaviour
- Business ethics & corporate governance
- ESG, inclusion & stakeholder accountability
- Emerging-market strategy & risk
- Executive leadership development
Speaking Topics
Governance
Inclusion as a Governance Issue
How exclusion signals deeper governance failure — and creates legal, reputational, and operational risk. Inclusion reframed not as an equity imperative but as a test of institutional design quality.
Emerging Markets
Risk Management in Emerging Markets
Navigating weak enforcement, bureaucratic discretion, and informal power structures in developing-country contexts — from inside the experience rather than as an external observer.
Strategy & Advocacy
Resilience & Advocacy as Leadership Tools
How the UN petition and the Delhi HC case were each built as deliberate, structural responses to institutional failure — not personal grievance, but strategic accountability mechanisms.
These sessions are candid, analytical, and interactive — not motivational talks. Designed for MBA and executive audiences who want a working case study, not an inspiration story.
Available Formats
- 60–90 minute lecture
- Fireside chat
- Leadership seminar
- Virtual session
Available for global engagements.
Writing
Three Days That Broke Me: A Disabled Entrepreneur's Fight for Justice in India
The anchor essay referenced in sessions with Wharton, IMD, INSEAD, and Kellogg audiences. A first-person account of the events that became the case study — and the structural argument about institutional design that the events made unavoidable.
Read the essay →Also Published
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View all writing at columnist.vikasgupta.world →
When Algorithms Decide Who Belongs: Can AI Undermine Disability Rights?
OpenGlobalRights
How AI Efficiency is Turning Diversity into a Liability
Disabled World
The AI Divide: How Technology is Leaving India's Public Schools Behind
Counterview
Governance Record
Delhi High Court · Constitutional Petition
W.P.(C) 11495/2025
Self-represented constitutional petition on custodial disability rights violations by Delhi Police and Tihar Jail. Built as a deliberate accountability mechanism — using institutional process to force institutional reckoning.
UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights · Individual Communication
An individual communication to the UN OHCHR on India's non-compliance with the UNCRPD — one of only three such communications from a disabled Indian. A parallel track to the Delhi HC petition, chosen deliberately to build accountability at the international level simultaneously.
Contact & Connect
Invite Vikas to speak on leadership
and governance at your programme.