
Author: Nandan Nilekani
Publisher: Penguin/Viking
Year: 2008
Language: English
Pages: 531
ISBN/UPC (if available): 9780670081967
Description
Since the early 1990s, India has witnessed great social, political and cultural change. As the world’s largest democracy, it’s most diverse nation and one of its fastest growing economies, India is now, sixty years after Independence, universally regarded as an emerging superpower. In this sweeping and comprehensive book, one of the country’s finest and most dynamic minds examines the central ideas that have shaped modern India, and offers an original perspective on our past, present and future.
Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani, who has been a key player in India’s growth story, points out that the country’s future rests on more than simply economic growth; it also depends on reform and innovation in all sectors of public life. Looking closely at India’s recent history, he examines the ideas and attitudes that have evolved with the times and contributed to the country’s progress, as well as those that keep us shackled to old, unproductive and fundamentally undemocratic ways.
He discusses how India’s early socialist policies, despite good intentions and astonishing idealism, stifled growth and weakened our democracy; how, contrary to received wisdom, the country’s large and overwhelmingly young population has now become its greatest strength; how information technology is revolutionizing not just business but also governance in the everyday life of a vast majority of Indians; and how rapid urbanization is transforming both society and politics.
He also gets to the heart of charged debates about caste politics, labour reform, infrastructure, higher education, the English language in India and the role of the state in a globalized world where the wealth of big corporations exceeds that of some nations. And as he does this, he asks the key questions of the future: how will India as a global power avoid the mistakes of earlier development models? Will further access to the open market continue to stimulate such extraordinary growth? And how will this growth affect- and be shaped by- the country’s young people?
India is in the middle of a huge transformational process, Nilekani argues, and only a safety net of ideas-from genuinely inclusive democracy to social security, from public health to sustainable energy-can transcend political agendas and safeguard the country’s future.
COMMENTS
‘What makes Nilekani unique? For me it comes down to one phrase: great explainer…It was his insight that the global playing field was being “leveled” by technology that inspired me to write the book The World is Flat…In this era of mounting complexity – with more people, systems and products entwined in a bewildering web of global networks-explaining is an enormously valuable skill. And it explains why, if you sit outside his office for a day, you notice that half the people going in are employees looking for instruction or customers looking for deals; the other half are politicians, journalists and ministers from around the world looking for an explanation of what it all means.’
-THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN, TIME
Contents
Introduction
NOTES FROM AN ACCIDENTAL ENTREPRENEUR
PART I : INDIA RE-IMAGINED
INDIA, BY ITS PEOPLE
FROM REJECTION TO OPEN ARMA
The Entrepreneur in India
THE PHOENIX TONGUE
The Rise, Fall and Rise of English
FROM MANEATERS TO ENABLERS
HOME AND THE WORLD
THE SEEPENING OF OUR DEMOCRACY
A RESTLESS COUNTRY
IDEAS IN PROGRESS
S IS FOR SCHOOLS
The Challenges in India’s Classrooms
OUR CHANGING FACES
India in the City
THE LONG ROADS HOME
ERASING LINES
Our Emerging Single Market
MOVING DEADLINES
PART III: FIGHTING WORDS
IDEAS IN BATTLE
THE SOUND AND THE FURY
Our Biggest Fights
JOSTLING FOR JOBS
INSTITUTIONS OF SAND
Our Universities
A FINE BALANCE
PART IV: CLOSER THAN THEY APPEAR
IDEAS TO ANTICIPATE
ICT IN INDIA
From Bangalore One to Country One
CHANGING EPIDEMICS
From Hunger to Heart Disease
OUR SOCIAL INSECURITIES
THE FOREST FOR THE TREES
India’s Environment Challenge
POWER PLAYS
In Search of Our Energy Solutions
THE NETWORK EFFECT
CONCLUSION
THE AWAKENED COUNTRY
NOTES
A TIME LINE OF KEY EVENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
INDEX