Imagining India: Nandan Nilekani at the Orientation Week at IIMB
Twenty four hours before Mr Nandan Nilekani, then Co-Chairman of Infosys Technologies Limited, was scheduled to address the incoming batches of the PGP and FPM programmes at IIM Bangalore on June 27, 2009 the announcement came that he had been appointed as the Chairperson of the newly created Unique Identification Authority of India.
The timing for the talk, effectively Mr Nilekani's first public engagement since the news broke, could not have been any better, allowing IIMB students to interact with him on his career with Infosys, as well as the future assignment. During his talk, he drew extensively on his book "Imagining India: Ideas for the New Century", published in November 2008, in which he articulates the opportunities, issues and challenges that India faces.
Mr Nilekani spoke of the India's advantage of having a lower dependency ratio in the near future. In his opinion, India must tap the benefit of being the only young country in an aging world. He pointed out how the views of the Indian people have shifted: they now value entrepreneurship, appreciate the English language and view technology and globalization as a means to empowerment. They also cherish the individual freedoms that democracy has gifted.
Mr Nilekani explained how in the pre-Independence days, businessmen wanted the state to play a larger role in the conduct of business. Even during the early years of liberalization in the 1990s several Indian businessmen called for protectionism. Contrastingly, today India is showcasing the arrival of the global Indian entrepreneur. Another drastic change in the mindset of the Indian public is the acceptance of the English language. Today, India has no qualms in appreciating the need for English in education and also the languages' contribution to the Indian economy. India is also experiencing enormous improvement in the use of technology. The rapid rise in the number of mobile users is an illustration of the fact that today's India views technology as empowerment.
While a tone of optimism infused his talk, Mr Nilekani also mentioned the challenges that India faces. In his opinion, some of the issues like lack of primary education, infrastructure and urbanization are mainly problems of implementation and with the government's input should improve. Other challenges like general public health, social security systems and depleting energy and environmental resources pose a grave danger as the severity of these challenges have not yet been identified and agreed upon.
Mr Nandan Nilekani's appointment as the Chairperson of the India's national unique identification project is part of a larger trend, seen in recent years, of appointing apolitical persons to positions with political authority, one that augurs well for India.
The students of the new batch at IIMB came away richer from the experience of having interacted with one of the stalwarts of Indian industry, and were inspired by his words: "There will come a time when big opportunities will be presented to us, and we've got to be in a position to take advantage of them. The time has come to India and we must make the best use of it".
Imagining India: Nandan Nilekani at the Orientation Week at IIMB
Twenty four hours before Mr Nandan Nilekani, then Co-Chairman of Infosys Technologies Limited, was scheduled to address the incoming batches of the PGP and FPM programmes at IIM Bangalore on June 27, 2009 the announcement came that he had been appointed as the Chairperson of the newly created Unique Identification Authority of India.
The timing for the talk, effectively Mr Nilekani's first public engagement since the news broke, could not have been any better, allowing IIMB students to interact with him on his career with Infosys, as well as the future assignment. During his talk, he drew extensively on his book "Imagining India: Ideas for the New Century", published in November 2008, in which he articulates the opportunities, issues and challenges that India faces.
Mr Nilekani spoke of the India's advantage of having a lower dependency ratio in the near future. In his opinion, India must tap the benefit of being the only young country in an aging world. He pointed out how the views of the Indian people have shifted: they now value entrepreneurship, appreciate the English language and view technology and globalization as a means to empowerment. They also cherish the individual freedoms that democracy has gifted.
Mr Nilekani explained how in the pre-Independence days, businessmen wanted the state to play a larger role in the conduct of business. Even during the early years of liberalization in the 1990s several Indian businessmen called for protectionism. Contrastingly, today India is showcasing the arrival of the global Indian entrepreneur. Another drastic change in the mindset of the Indian public is the acceptance of the English language. Today, India has no qualms in appreciating the need for English in education and also the languages' contribution to the Indian economy. India is also experiencing enormous improvement in the use of technology. The rapid rise in the number of mobile users is an illustration of the fact that today's India views technology as empowerment.
While a tone of optimism infused his talk, Mr Nilekani also mentioned the challenges that India faces. In his opinion, some of the issues like lack of primary education, infrastructure and urbanization are mainly problems of implementation and with the government's input should improve. Other challenges like general public health, social security systems and depleting energy and environmental resources pose a grave danger as the severity of these challenges have not yet been identified and agreed upon.
Mr Nandan Nilekani's appointment as the Chairperson of the India's national unique identification project is part of a larger trend, seen in recent years, of appointing apolitical persons to positions with political authority, one that augurs well for India.
The students of the new batch at IIMB came away richer from the experience of having interacted with one of the stalwarts of Indian industry, and were inspired by his words: "There will come a time when big opportunities will be presented to us, and we've got to be in a position to take advantage of them. The time has come to India and we must make the best use of it".