Tamil Nadu - Chennai

‘Great explainer’ sets forth his ideas

CHENNAI: At a time when many are despondent about the state of politics, Nandan Nilekani is an optimistic man. More than half-a-billion young people, 90 per cent literacy by 2020, 40 per cent urbanisation and increased awareness through the media will change the game of politics, he reckons.

These are the facts on which the co-founder of Infosys has based his optimism because as aspirations change, social dynamics will change accordingly, and the demand for better governance will have to be met.

The man whom the author of ‘The World is Flat’ Thomas Friedman called “the great explainer,” proved why he was crowned with that epithet as he shared his thoughts at the launch of his book ‘Imagining India: Ideas for the New Century’ here on Monday.

The book, a Penguin Allen Lane publication, is the outcome of what Mr. Nilekani describes as a voyage of self discovery in understanding why India is the way it is, how we have got here and what the future holds.

This discovery was not charted through “adjectives, slogans and substandard discussions.” Instead, he relied on the power of ideas. Only when an idea got embedded in people’s minds, could a traction develop to make a system believe in the idea, leading to change, he said.

The book is organised into four sets of ideas. Six ideas helped to shape the India of today, said Mr. Nilekani. The idea that population is not a burden but human capital, which is referred to as “demographic dividend,” is the first. The development of the entrepreneurial spirit, the effect of the English language, technology as a tool for empowerment, the attitude to globalisation and deepening of democracy are the other ideas that lie in the first set. “The combination of these six factors is unique,” he said.

© Copyright 2000 - 2009 The Hindu