New Delhi, May 21 -- Uday Kotak is known for speaking plainly. The 67-year-old stirred up a debate in 2025 when he called out scions of Indian business families for becoming full-time family office managers and investors rather than building businesses.

Kotak has spoken plainly again, this time at the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) annual summit, the elite gathering expected to collectively handhold Viksit Bharat-the pithy phrase for a set of hopeful socio-economic targets for 2047.

The billionaire banker told them that they had become too comfortable and focused on lobbying to protect individual firms. He said tribalism was making a global comeback after 80 years and only raw power, territory and ownership counted anymore, even...