Technology can fix India's problems: Nilekani

AUTHORSPEAK: Nandan Nilekani says his book is not for a non-democratic setup.

        

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New Delhi: Co-chairman and co-founder of Infosys Technlogies Nandan Nilekani has authored a book Imagining India. The book has a unique problem solving perspective to the crises and the challenges of 21st century India. Nilekani explains the rationale behind writing the book saying he wanted to get into the root of what makes India tick. He says the book presents a holistic picture of India. He points out that in the last decade and half, Indians have got used to technology and now it can be used to solve some of India's biggest problems.

Rajdeep Sardesai: Hello and welcome to a very special show with a very special guest. We're joined today by the co-chairman and the co-founder of Infosys Technlogies, but today let me introduce Nandan Nilekani as the author of Imagining India, his just released book that really has a unique problem solving perspective to the crises and the challenges of 21st century India.

Nandan, congratulations on the book.

Nandan Nilekani: Thank you for having me here.

Rajdeep Sardesai: I know you've been asked this in various interviews but why does someone who’s an information technology entrepreneur suddenly decide to turn part sociologist, part historian and part economist. What did it for this book?

Nandan Nilekani: I wanted to get into the root of what makes India tick and I realise that if you take a very narrow view of it you can't explain it. So I had to delve into all these various things tie up all these threads to get that holistic picture of India.

Rajdeep Sardesai: It's interesting because your book is about post-reform India, post-1991 India. A fellow Bangalorean and your friend Ram Guha wrote about India after Gandhi, so there’s something about Bangaloreans in the air that...

Nandan Nilekani:... That makes you look far away from the action so you get a perspective.

Rajdeep Sardesai: It is about that perspective that’s slightly distant. Your book is about two kinds of ideas. It talks about the vertical ideas and the horizontal ideas. The vertical ideas being the ones that divide us, for example caste, region, religion, and horizontal ideas being environment, education, technology and health that unite us. You believe that vertical ideas will become less and less important.

Nandan Nilekani: No, I don’t think so. I think vertical ideas are the basis of our debate today and understandably because it makes sense for those who want to succeed in political sense and identify a group of people who feel that they have been treated unfairly and be the voice for that. That’s a perfectly valid thing. But at the end of the day it is these horizontal ideas that move the country forward.

Rajdeep Sardesai: But what you're hoping for is that vertical ideas become less and less of the central focus of the country, that India thinks much more about education, technology, health, environment as the challenges of the future .

Nandan Nilekani: Absolutely. It is an optimistic book because I am trying to say that while these vertical ideas will divide us, ultimately these horizontal aspirations of a billion people will drive change. And I have given many examples of how these horizontal ideas have overcome the vertical divide.

Rajdeep Sardesai: But my worry is that in democratic politics we've seen things like the Maharashtrians Vs north Indian divide in Mumbai, we've seen in the way in which terror also has a religious dimension. So I just wonder whether democratic politics will prevent your horizontal ideas from being translated into action.

Nandan Nilekani: No, that’s why I call this a safety net of ideas because if the politics of the situation doesn’t allow these things then obviously people, who adopt these ideas as a frame of reference will sort of act as a safety net against bad decision. And on the other hand, if there's a very good leadership which takes these ideas and runs with the ball then you have a very accelerated way of looking at the future.