Nandan Nilekani's ideas for India's future

Let me highlight here one of the very influential talks given by Nandan Nilekani at the TED Talk held at Long Beach California this February. Nandan spoke about the various ideas in his view that define India and why the world at large needs to be concerned about the same. Being a responsible India and a great fan of Nandan, am taking this liberty in paraphrasing Nandan's talk. But the real essence of what he said and his passion could be absorbed by seeing the TED video on YouTube. Till such time, here's the summary.

The Four kind of ideas having really made an impact on India are:

• Ideas that have arrived
• Ideas in progress
• Ideas in conflict, and
• Ideas in anticipation.

As the name suggests, each of these ideas have different bearing on the country and India needs to leverage each accordingly. These ideas along each kind are:

Ideas that have arrived

• People- Demographic Divide, being a young country in this aging world
• Entrepreneurs- who have today become the role models to millions of young Indians
• Attitude towards English Language- which has transitioned from the clutches of imperialism to aspiration
• Technology- that's empowering millions of India and helping them connect better
• Globalization- and the comfort that Indians share with it, and
• Democracy- which is bottom-up and participative making India the largest of it's kind in the world

Ideas in progress

• Primary Education- is becoming the emerging focus as government schools aren't keeping the pace
• Infrastructure- which again needs to keep pace with India's straightening economy
• Urbanization- leading to making better cities which are the growth engines for economy, and
• Single Market- which really refers to internal globalization.

Ideas in Conflict

• Political ideologies
• Labor reforms
• Higher education

Ideas in Anticipation

• E-Governance
• Health
• Pension and Entitlement
• Environment, and
• Energy

I believe this has been a very comprehensive and well studies view of India's identity and its changing form for a global audience. Well done Nandan!