Nadan Nilekani, author of “Imagining India,” a book that covers a wide variety of the different interpretations of India, gives his perspective of India’s past in an interview throughout this video clip. His reasoning for choosing India as a topic was the urge to explain India’s contradictions and to dig deeper into the explanations of why there is such a large gap between the wealthy and the poor.
Nilekani strongly believes that the key to growth is in expanding access to resources and opportunity. His book is divided into four parts, giving an overview of some of India’s most immediate challenges and a good variety of ideas that will dominate public discussion in years to come.
India is similar to the U.S.in that things do not happen just because someone said so. A large mass of people need to believe in the idea together. Nilekani explains that India will be the only country in the world that will experience a demographic dividend. This “demographic dividend” of a young population is as much an opportunity as it is a challenge. The task of meeting global talent needs with an educated and trained workforce is very difficult for any one nation to take on.
The key to success is education. India is off to a good start with the majority of this young population understanding the need to have education. Also, parents are beginning to see the economic costs of lack of education. India’s recently improved education system is often cited as one of the main contributors to the economic development of India. The education system in the country is growing at a much faster rate and the government has allowed free and compulsory education to all up to the age of fourteen. Also, making an effort to spread education in the rural areas and villages.
Unfortunately, there are negatives at the both ends of the spectrum. There are still many areas that lack education and even if it’s there, poorly qualified teachers and inappropriate infrastructure do not deliver the right kind of education. Those who have the education are burdened under heavy competitive pressure in terms of grasping things, speaking fluently, and acquiring academic skills.
Nilekani continues to discuss how the Internet and technology have a huge impact on the education system and the strong need for improvement in skilled education, such as vocational schooling. He then goes into detail discussing the areas that India is on its way to excelling at. For example: technology, innovation in manufacturing, how to design quality products at low costs. India’s long term progress will be based upon having good relations with the surrounding neighbor countries. It has been a challenge for India being surrounded by areas that are not very peaceful.
India is in the middle of a huge transformational process and after listening to Nilekani’s interview, I would suggest this book to anyone unfamiliar with the present situation in India. It shows a general overview of the positive and negative aspects of the growing Indian economy and on social development in India.
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