Desi News Corp - Index

Desi News Corp - Desi News - June 2009 - Index

going PLACES
When most people
think of India, they
think crowds. When
Nandan Nilekani thinks of
India, he thinks human capital.
He describes this “demographic
dividend” in his new
book, Imagining India.
I got a little lost, though, imagining
India. Perhaps rightly so, I
thought, wandering around
York University’s sprawling
campus, looking for the venue
of Nilekani’s talk. India has
taken a few wrong turns along
the way, but is now headed
firmly in the right direction,
writes Nilekani.
There was an element of the
infamous IST (Indian Standard
Time) as people were still trickling
in past 6 pm for the talk
scheduled to begin at 5:45,
many with copies of Imagining
India in hand.
Nilekani himself entered with
a coffee, escorted by, among others,
Dr. Ashwin Joshi, director,
MBA program, Schulich
School of Business. His attention
to detail apparent in the question
he must have asked Joshi, who
whispered, “Schulich,” back to
26 Desi News June 2009
Rethinking India Inc.
India is now headed in
the right direction, says
Nandan Nilekani
plexed by India’s many contradictions,
he said, and faced by
questions wherever he went.
How could there be so many
Indian billionaires on the Forbes’
list and so many millions of
poor? How could a country
making huge strides in the hightech
sector have the world’s
largest pool of uneducated chil-
•
him, Nilekani addressed students,
faculty members and guests at
Schulich School of Business, with
the Schulich being pronounced
just so.
Nilekani outlined the raison
d’etre for his book. He was perdren?
How could 21st century
achievements co-exist with 17th
century baggage? Where did a
state-of-the-art organization
like Infosys belong in a country
of slums?
His book had to be not a history
of India, nor a biography of
its great leaders and thinkers, he
concluded, but be placed within
a framework of ideas. To do this,
he wove in ideas from 126 of the
best in journalism, economics,
sociology, environment, etc.
The entrepreneur, described
as one of India’s most influential
businessmen, talked about how
the Indian mindset has changed
towards entrepreneurs – going
from a time when the task of rebuilding
India was believed to be
best left to the state, through a
time of protectionism to the
building from which the Tatas
operate becoming a metaphor for
a country that thinks globally.
The country has segued from
the days when the Reserve Bank
described computers as Ledger
Posting Machines (to allay fears of
job-eating computers) to millions
of mobile phone users today.
It has gone from a time when
political slogans were about rotikapda-makan
(food, clothing and
shelter) to bijli-sadak-pani (power,
roads and water or, in other
words, infrastructure).
The demographic dividend
meant that while the rest of the
world was facing an ageing population
and the associated issues,
India had four people working
to support one person. Which,
in turn, meant that India was at
the peak of its economic growth.
But to harness this human
capital, to enjoy sustainable growth,
the country had to make higher
education, jobs, and health services
accessible to the masses.
“This is not a Pollyanna picture,”
said Nilekani, immediately
endearing himself to me
– I have loved the Pollyanna
books since I was a little girl –
“policies continue to be restrictive
for small business.”
He took questions from the
eager audience, about business
ethics in India, about what the
future holds for the country...
and about the key to his success.
“Loads of luck,” he replied
with a laugh. Then he gave the
students something to think
about, attributing his success to
the willingness to go for the
long haul. “Be willing to defer
gratification, treat it as a marathon
and not a sprint.”
And teaching by example, he
should have added.
For, as Dr Joshi revealed at
the end of the talk, Nandan
Nilekani had a scheduling conflict
– Time magazine’s top 100
most influential people in the
world, of whom he is one, were
being felicitated in New York
the same evening.
The man who speaks about
how best to serve the student
population chose to speak to
students at Schulich
instead.
• Imagining India,
Viking Canada,
$34