Bridgital Nation: Solving Technology's People Problem

by N. Chandrasekaran, Roopa Purushothaman

It is 2030. India is among the world's top three economies. All Indians use the cloud, artificial intelligence and automated learning to either do their job or get their job done. All Indians have access to quality jobs, better healthcare and skill-based education. Technology and human beings coexist in a mutually beneficial ecosystem. This reality is possible. It is within reach. With Bridgital. In this groundbreaking book, the chairman of Tata Sons, N. Chandrasekaran presents a powerful vision for the future. To the coming disruption of artificial intelligence, he proposes an ingenious solution, where India is perfectly positioned to pave a unique path from the rest of the world. Instead of accepting AI as an inevitable replacement for human labour, India can use it as an aid; instead of taking them away, AI can generate jobs. Chandrasekaran and his co-author, Roopa Purushothaman, survey the country for inspirational stories of resilience and determination, and seek the ideal way to bring Indians closer to their dreams. Through on-ground application of the dynamic technology called 'Bridgital', they show how Indians can be connected across the country, creating a network of services to be delivered where they are most required. This brilliant, cutting-edge solution will address India's biggest challenges by bridging the huge chasm between rural and urban communities, the different levels of education and medical access, and between aspirations and achievement. From healthcare to education to business, the model can be applied in various sectors, and, by a conservative estimate, it can create and impact 30 million jobs by 2025. One of the country's foremost industry leaders and pioneers, N. Chandrasekaran brings his expertise of over thirty years with the Tata Group to offer a blueprint for building a prosperous India, where everyone is included in the growth story.

Genres: Technology, India, Nonfiction, Business, Leadership, Economics

344 pages, Hardcover

Published October 12, 2019

Reviews

[Indra Nooyi]

Bridgital Nation provides an authentic view of India as it is today, as well as an ambitious vision for its future. Their beautiful writing brings to life the real-life challenges that people across India are facing – particularly for women and their critical place in the Indian economy. This book is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand today’s India and how it could be a force to be reckoned with in the coming decade. I'm eager for us all to begin thinking about the solutions to these challenges.

[May Ling · Rating 4 out of 5]

Summary: Sums up the state of tech in India going into 2020. More importantly, it talks about why. The latter is very important if, as a part of business, you want to connect with some of the gov-focused objectives already in place. Super fascinating from a comparative econ perspective.

[Vlog review to come on IGTV. Follow my Instagram for details at: WhereisMayLing]

For newbie to India tech, this book is more like a 5. It's very approachable and if you have to get up to speed on India, this is one of the better books to do it. It was recommended to me by someone that is very deep in the scene for tech and tech investing that reason.

There are some criticisms from others that I think are reading for an expectation of having Chandrasekaran to answer this problem. I disagree with these reviews, though I can understand given the title why they might feel let down. I think that it's hard enough just to correctly describe the facets of the problem, i.e. what you know, what you don't know, and what you're trying to get to happen. In that regard, this book does answer that question very well, leaving others to better think about the work they want to do related to this (the start-ups they want to promote, invest in, or otherwise be a part of).

Here are my notes:
p. 14 - Gives forward projections of India by 2050 given current growth. It's looking to be the 3rd largest world economy (Ahead of German, EGADS!), with per capita income that is still very low.
Demographics will have a far younger set of jobseekers.

p. 28 - The story of Nikhail. He's not a dr. but what he does is essential b/c it solves this intermediate problem of distribution.

p. 31 - "Technology alone does not solve difficult problems. But when technology is applied in context wtih reimaginied processes, the results can be magical." This is something I'm expanding upon in my upcoming book. So I love that it's presented here. The implication is you can't just port in tech from another place and think it will work, esp in a country like india.

p. 33 - India "should use the opportunity that technology provides to generate gainful employment, instead of investing blindly in labour substituting automation."
He comes to the conclusion that it means skilling up those that would otherwise be lower qualified workers. The issue is that later we realize how hard this actually is. I'm with him and yet, I think he should expand further on this and that there was room to do so in the book. A bit of a missed opportunity. But I do feel him in that the ones to solve it are going to come up with stuff that is way beyond the scope of this book.

p. 49 - This book is so key if you work in healthcare and want to understand. I mean, the stats are great and really lay it out.

p. 54 - Healthcare fraud. SOOOOO Sad.

p. 69 He switches to the female issue. They are not as big a part of the workforce despite being an amazing part of the talent pool.

p. 77 Gender gap pay differential, plus extra safety concerns mean that it's expensive and you don't make as much if you are a lady.

p. 83 - The benefits of day care, both in job creation and also allowing women an ability to participate in the workforce.

p. 95 - Issues with classic economic stats due to the way people participate vs. go to the grey markets

p. 109 - The skills gap issue in India right now.

p. 115 - Summarizes the industry areas vs their % of GDP.

p. 126 - Small and Medium enterprises (SMEs) This is the bulk of companies, though big companies are the brand name employers. Unlike Dev countries, it is not straight forward to address these.

p. 131 - Access to capital from SMEs is not easy to deal with given infra issues.

p. 139 - They talk about how bengaluru is different, but the thing that's weird is they don' really call it a Special economic zone, b/c it seems more like this just happens in more of a silcon valley way.

p. 156 - He talks about technology use to read old patient files for the purpose of scaling a limited number of drs in the county (Dr. to patient ratios are low relative to other nations).

p. 165 - He presents a McKinsey report on automation and how India might be slightly different. B/c it has such cheap labor supply it might not make sense to apply the same logic to use of automation. This can be both good and bad. Instead, it is more likely that you have implementation with skill acquisition that allows labor and automation to work together a bit better. This is where we really get into his concept of bridgital

p. 173 - This is a summary of some stats on how he's thinking about it. It's interesting to see the value add and any additional wage requirement (if i'm reading this summary correctly)

p. 183 - He goes deeper into that missing bridge. I think this might be why some readers missed his conclusion. The country needs to solve this particular problem of the missing middle. In fairness, the solution is still missing from this book.

p. 188 - If you aren't familiar with India's healthcare, the footnotes in page 188 are instructive.

p. 192 - There are a few very interesting articles to fill in the women's section of the book. He thinks this is a major part of putting the work you need back into the workforce.

p. 194 - It's interesting the footnote on hours of work that women can come and go. I think this is either so as not to exploit or otherwise to promote safe working conditions for women. I'm not totally sure, but the link to the India Factories act is there.

[Annie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Deeply thoughtful, practical India-centric solutions leveraging tech to bridge and re-engineer nation's growth at scale

Practicality of ideas to the vastness of opportunity, potential to apply the technology lever to bridge people problems is very rewarding. This book will instill new confidence in the resurgence of India's growth in the coming years. Hope this book brings more insightful conversations in the formal, informal sectors and strike a cord for a scalable solution by igniting the fire within each of us.

I also hope to see more women seek solutions to balance their lives and career, create a upward curve on the economy graph plotted through their resilience and resurgence.
Mindsets has to change, and it is through provoking ideas of an ambitious nation, a synergy of players within and outside their circles, public-private partnerships and this convergence gives us the power to tame nature to provide answers if only we seek to solve the problems.

[Subhadip Mukherjee · Rating 4 out of 5]

An eye opener

The core agenda of this book is to show how technology can be used to augment productivity which will help solving twin problems India faces - lack of access to various services on account of less than expected skill workers in one hand and lack of good jobs in other.
The book explains how India can progress by solving twin challenges with help of technology, but cautions that it can be possible if government processes, education and infrastructure see improvement to cater to 21st century aspirations.

[Rahul Jangid · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book puts forward India's twin challenges namely access and jobs challenge meticulously and suggests practical ways to overcome these challenges. It also paints a picture of the chasm between informal and formal job sector in India and expounds on how we can bridge this gap using technology, not just for the sake of the technology itself but for the context it is applied to. It encourages entrepreneurship and introduces you to India's potential in becoming a world leader in the coming years, for India will lead the world in the number of people coming of working age from 2020 to 2030.

[Venky · Rating 3 out of 5]

A book that is bold and enterprising in intention, but falling short of concrete suggestions for implementation, “Bridgital Nation” is a welcome addition to the works that attempt to lay a concrete path for solving problems concerning access to basic resources and means in India. The credentials of the authors make the work one to be taken seriously. While Mr. N Chandrasekaran is the Chairman of the Tata Group, one of the world’s best known multibillion dollar conglomerate, Ms. Roopa Purushothaman is the Chief Economist and Policy Advocate at Tata & Sons. Hence, a slew of references alluding to various social, economic, cultural and innovative initiatives undertaken by the Tata Group, within the book, does not strike the reader as surprising.

The basic premise permeating the pages in the book, is an exhortation by the authors to shed the notion of viewing problems as well as solutions through the reductionist binary lens of technology against jobs. Technology, according to the duo can and should be employed as a powerful tool to improve and embellish the functioning of various sectors such as the legal process, education and medical services.

The book begins with a bleak overview of the gap between supply and demand of even rudimentary essentials that is plaguing the population of India today. “For example, it will take a further 600,000 doctors and 2.5 million nurses, a million teachers, about 400,000 agricultural extension workers, and 1.7 million commercial vehicle drivers to meet India’s current needs. Despite the 30 million cases pending within India’s judicial system, the country has only three quarters of the judges it needs. There aren’t enough researchers, plumbers or welders either.” The quintessential issue, leading to this situation, is, according to the authors, two-pronged. First is an inability to bring women into the work force, and the second, a lack of a vibrant ecosystem that encourages and nurtures entrepreneurship. Consider this: “Nearly 120 million Indian women—more than double the entire population of South Korea—have at least a secondary education, but do not participate in the workforce. If even half of this group of women entered the workforce, in one stroke, the share of workers with at least a secondary education would jump from 33 per cent to 46 per cent—the equivalent of fifteen years’ worth of improvement. This alone could add 31 trillion ($440 billion) to India’s GDP.” In so far as the entrepreneurship landscape goes, the authors highlight the fact that the Indian business landscape although boasting a large number of micro businesses, predominantly encompasses self-employed individuals who are optimistically called ‘entrepreneurs’. “What they run are survival ventures, the only road available, the last throw of the dice. If they had a choice, many of these ‘entrepreneurs’ would probably opt for staid, unglamorous salaried jobs.”

The solution: “Bridging India of the numbers with India of the senses.” Enter process Bridgital.

Bridgital recongnises an urgent need to redefine the means that are necessary to deliver a service or solution, especially in a manner that prioritizes the challenges of those without access. Behind the Bridgital process, lies the attribute of digital technology. A judicious and prudent combination of Digital technology and low-cost service delivery models can complement the skill and talent of workers. The Bridgital process, can, for example ensure both the safety and mobility of women thereby enhancing the existing workforce and more importantly bestowing upon women, their deserving share of both monetary rewards and more intangible considerations such as recognition and progress. According to the World Bank economist Girija Borker, ‘women’s willingness to pay for safety translates into a 20 per cent decline’ in the salaries they could have earned after graduating college. The Bridgital process, can, in addition, also lead to the establishment of a ‘21st Century Cutting Edge Care Economy.’

In the authors’ own words, for instance, childcare workers—whether attached to a care-centre or standalone—could be integrated into a cloud-based management system which allows them to do administrative tasks like reporting attendance, health and safety records, and also to undergo training. This would also enable real-time check-ins and scheduling, and offer a source of collaboration amongst parents. Moreover, individuals can also create a transferable professional history by adopting this platform-based approach, deepening their integration into the formal economy.”

The authors breeze through, at breakneck speed, some of the initiatives that are currently implemented, and are yielding results in the various spheres such as healthcare, as a result of a blend of human capabilities and technical knowhow.

The noble exploits of Nikhil Burman, a driver in Silchar, who by virtue of his selfless service, lends an extraordinary degree of credence to the usually maligned word, ‘middleman’ is worth recounting. Possessing no professional medical qualifications or training, Mr. Burman has redefined the concept of medical care in so far as a multitude of the poor and underprivileged are concerned. Parking his conveyance on the kerb of National Highway 37, he receives a stream of patients, mostly villagers who have made long and exacting treks just to meet him. Armed with a mobile, Mr. Burman then proceeds to make doctors’ appointments, arrange affordable lodgings, along with conveying honest expectations around cures, costs and timelines. This intrepid and tireless individual could be empowered to do much more, if he was equipped with the right type of technology.

A Tata Consultancy Services (“TCS”) pioneered venture in the domain of healthcare that is making waves in the district of Kolar, Karnataka is a case in point. Goaded into action by the then health Minister Mr. Ramesh, TCS converted an otherwise plaid sanatorium in Kolar into a Digital Nerve Centre. Local health workers popularly known as ASHAs, are provided iPads. Armed with these devices, ASHAs make house visits, talking to patients, recording their symptoms and updating their medical records. The data is uploaded onto a cloud server, thereby enabling doctors to deal with patients on a remote basis even. The necessity of and for proximity is thereby restricted to purely inevitable circumstances.

The book concludes by positing the potential for porting technology into diverse sectors of the society thereby harnessing the power of both intellectual and Information Technology capabilities. This process would usher in a new and vibrant India. Although not a teeth-to-tail handbook dealing with the measures that would make the Bridgital process meaningful, the only shortcoming of the book is a heavily macro-level and 30,000 feet exposition of both the nature and feasibility of the Bridgital process. Racing through the proposed solutions does not provide the requisite and appropriate degree of amplification that is otherwise necessary for identifying, evaluating and appreciating the cures for the social, economic, cultural and technological shortcomings ailing our nation.

Perhaps Bridgital Nation – 2 may alleviate this lacuna.

[Payas Rajan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The basic premise of the book is that India has two problems:
1. There aren't enough 'good' or 'formal sector' jobs, that offer stability or challenge.
2. A majority of people face a shortage of _access_ to basic services (water/electricity/...).
The solution book offers is bridging the two problems above using technology to create a new class of workers that are more productive than those in the informal sector. It is an easy read, and the tone is refreshingly pragmatic, focusing on what can be done with the resources we already have + technology, rather than waiting for large scale reforms to bear fruit. For instance, the book argues for better management practices in hospitals and schools, rather than waiting for training institutes to churn out more teachers and doctors to fill in the vacancies.

What I didn't like-
1. It glosses over major policy failures on the part of the administrations, including demonetization, UPA-2's economic policies, etc.
2. I don't like the word 'bridgital', and had to mentally replace every occurrence of it with X.

In all, I liked it. Indians, for the love of god, turn off your TVs and read this.

[Dipesh Walte · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tech solutions for Scaling positive solutions across nations. Great storytelling.. great statistics!

[Vinodini · Rating 2 out of 5]

1. High level suggestions: The book talks about how technology can enable to solve some of the challenges India is facing, but not How. There are no specific solutions or even ideas mentioned.

2. There is no clear thought and structure: The book starts of with two key challenges - Accessibility and Jobs and the solution as 1) Bringing more women to workforce 2) Everywhere entrepreneurship i.e. enabling SMEs better to start a business. But the book talks about other random aspects such as Healthcare in depth and doesn't lead anywhere.

Overall, this book can be skipped

[Sambasivan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent ideas on job creation in this technology driven world. Comes out with a clear articulation on the opportunity in specific fields and how one may go about achieving this in our country. Simple and well written book interspersed with interesting anecdotes.

[Madhuri Kudva · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book to be an easy read, with a few important messages re-iterated throughout the book, repeatedly.

The scope of the book was too large to go in depth, so I felt the authors couldn’t really go into too much of either a problem-solving approach nor a systemic approach which would offer one-size fits all solutions...as neither would be possible with such a large scope to cover.

The stories in the book were engaging and brought the problems to life in a humane, empathetic manner. They were also simple enough to be easily understood by the common man, so the book wasn’t really intimidating for someone without a background in economics or public policy.

I think this would make a very good read for a 8th grader at school - it would help them understand the challenges of today’s India, simply, without the burden of too many statistics.

It felt like a bridge between a heavy economics text book and a soul-filled narrative like ‘Beyond the beautiful forevers’

I plan to read bits of it aloud to my middle-schooler kids for sure.

[Rishabh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Problems and way forward

[Sai Prasad · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's not manual or automation, replace or retain, It's mix of both.
Bridgital Nation is demonstration of solving problems across sectors in India by bridging gaps using digital technologies. Understanding the process of bridgital is made simple by narrating interesting anecdotes.

[Jalpa S. · Rating 4 out of 5]

4/5 : India is a inscrutable country. At one side, it is the everyday country of the senses which tells us about the challenges it's citizens faces every day - crowded clinics, bustling courts, underemployment, lack of professional care for children and elders, access to education etc. And then other side the country is made of numbers - analyst country, which completely tells different story. It says by 2030, India will be the world's third largest economy (without really focusing how much population will actually be participating in GDP growth)

One is overwhelming and the other confounding. India has an overwhelming demand of vital services and overwhelming supply of human capital. We just don't know how to bridge the gap between them.

Authors suggest Bridgital approach where technology can help to bridge it by giving access of basic services to vast majority of population and in turn improving their standard of living while also opening up new line of formal sectors for employment which either do not exist today or are informal in nature giving less pay and security. We just cannot adopt same approach as developed countries which is more about replacing human with technology. If we do so, we will be multiplying our problems than solving them by keeping two third population out of picture from any growth story.

Thoughtful insights with few examples of successful implementation of this approach. However, books still not clear in it's suggestions about concrete steps , plan or even stakeholders who should be owning this innovative technology transformation approach to really achieve this vision.

[S Sadagopan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outstanding book
Provides deep insights
Real-world examples make it relevant
Story telling narrative makes it a great read; I finished reading in 3,4 days!

[Ashish Jha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Of the many books that I picked with no hesitation and with no immediate intention to read was Bridgital Nation co-authored by Mr N Chandrasekaran, our Chairman. If the Group Chairman writes a book, one should pick it up in case, you know, one meets him at an airport and, you know, he is free to talk only with you, and you know, you need to have a topic of common interest.

Ms Roopa Purushothaman is the Chief Economist at Tata Sons and one assumes would have brought the bulk of the economic hypotheses into the book. However, if you've ever heard the Chairman speak, you can sense his signature all over it. The book is simple, yet deeply profound.

It is also a uniquely patriotic book with no overtones which are getting attached to that noble feeling nowadays. It is written with care and deep thought, never blaming, never complaining but always nudging the reader into a direction filled with promise and pride. It talks about the massive potential that India has, and suggests how we might miss it if we don't take our destiny in our own hands.

India faces a twin challenge as described in the book - Jobs and Access.
Jobs: While there is abundance of employable people, there is a wide gap in jobs, specially the ones which will cater to the middle of skills market, and there is little scope for a large working class becoming more productive and earn more.
Access: While there is abundance in some pockets of the country, there are many parts which simply do not have access to the most basic amenities.

The book is written in several small chapters, picking stories that narrate the above challenges. There are heroes who struggle in everyday life for the most basic amenities, and yet continue to strive and sometimes succeed. The areas covered are healthcare, education and employment, and judiciary although mentioned a few times is never explained in such detail. The stories are not a description of their tragedy but are placed objectively as need-gap analysis. Thus, the reader is given an intellectual (and economic) view into their struggles and not a tragic and sorrowful view.

There are many heroes described in the book, such as an unlikely medical middleman in Assam, a farmer turned water-proofing expert in Pune and an IT-savvy healthcare volunteer in Karnataka. However, there is one hero in the book which holds promise to become a superhero - Bridgital. This approach bridges the gap between demand and supply in which humans working closely with technologies such as AI, Data Integration and Analytics. With simple examples like the AIIMS Delhi and a hospital in Kolar, Karnataka, the book explains how Bridgital can changes lives and livelihoods. It recognises that the journey will be difficult to cover but the results can change the country, and possibly the world.

The Government seems to be the primary audience for the book, although the book could trigger other influencers to make equally strong impact. Thus, the book treads carefully, appreciating the current government's effort to promote technology and digital in various avenues, while also highlighting limitations of the approach being taken. It neither takes a critical stand nor fawns over the government's efforts to side with it. It simply says, "Here's another way you might want to look at doing things, and by the way, here is the list of references that we used". Every data and every theory is backed by a reference. A few chapters on women education and employment proves that the idea is a no-brainer. This looks like a research paper which you can also understand for a change. The graphs are surprisingly simple and reveal great insights into the research done.

Personally, I was delighted to read a book which talks about India, its challenges and a vision for its future without comparing us to any other nation. The fact that it comes from the House of Tata is the icing on the cake.

With great joy and pride, I recommend this book to everyone.

[Pankaj Senapati · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent look on what technology has to offer in solving India's major problems of healthcare, employment etc.

[Karan Rai · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tata's are just awesome in whatever they do. It's not just random stuff but well written suggestions and they concentrate on the core of India.
Indeed a good read.

[Shanmugam Ramasamy · Rating 4 out of 5]

India has a long way to go, and we are in the brink of making or breaking our future. I love the premise of the book which is to marry the gap between limited access ( medical, judicial etc) and between excess supply of human capital. The book revolves around how we can create mid level skilled jobs to improve access for people and in the process generate employment .
An eg: We need 600k more doctors, 2 million nurses etc. People are not getting good healthcare in rural areas .
The book highlights a lot of very interesting facts and figures to show where we are currently and what has to be done. The only issue I had was I felt like the book didn't focus a lot on the details of the solutions proposed . It felt like the book spoke more about the opportunities rather than the exact way to utilize them. More attention could have been paid to the latter. Overall a really good book to read .

[Yagnik Kalariya · Rating 2 out of 5]

Let me confess that I had greater expectations from authors in terms of details and solutions and because of that my review may be biased. The authors have focused on the problems India is facing, mainly jobs, technology, access, talent, woman. They have mentioned these problems and solutions needed through combination of talent and digital technologies. The authors have explained the solutions in health segment in detail with case studies and examples. I found it a bit cluttered and clumsy at few sections initially. Though the efforts of authors for the theme of the book are much appreciated, it would have been better if they have emphasized on the solutions in details rather than crunching numbers.

[The Conch · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book describes how latest IoT, AI and other digital technology can help to boost economy by creating jobs, providing help in healthcare service and micro finance schemes to uplift backward classes of India. It provides measures to solve "India’s Twin Challenges’: Jobs and Access". In coming years, there will be crowds of educated Indian youth, but there will be little'Good Jobs' i.e. well paid jobs.

There lies a huge bridge to gap and this gap has marvelous potential to ameliorate living standard of people. Through digital technology the gap can be managed and helps India to achieve 'Bridgital' status.

[Mayur Sinha · Rating 2 out of 5]

Failed to deliver what the title suggests

I had quite a big hope when I purchased this book thinking how we can solve today's India's problems using technology in-hand but the major portion of the book, the writers are busy telling stories of the current issues in various sectors. And not every story is backed with the technology solution as the title speaks. Moreover, the solutions they mentioned are from Tata inc. which seems like they are marketing their own agenda. This book is just the accumulation of some of the notes of the writers and nothing more.

[Vijay Jain · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bridgital Nation

If there is one book you need to read it is the Bridgital Nation by N. Chandrasekaran & Roopa Purushothaman

Its as much a philosophy /Management approach as it is prescriptive !

It stems from an approach of “antarlaapika” - a riddle where the answer lies hidden within.

The approach to technology has to be focussed and “contextualised”for India and requires a different approach from the developed economies. For them efficiency takes precedence over market access, an aging population over India’s much younger population & advantage of being less resource constrained (both skills & physical assets)

India has the twin Advantages/ Challenges of a “overwhelming supply of human capital” (with approx 1 mn being added every month) and on the other side an “overwhelming demand for vital services” (better jobs, education, health care etc)

Historically India’s approach to job creation has been “incremental” and limited by addition of jobs in existing industries and largely in the formal sector. The informal sector on the other hand is characterised by low productivity, low wages and absence of security

So while we have a huge human capital - “time, which once seemed an infinite resource, has begun to grow scarce ‘ and there is a need to quickly relook and reframe the paradigm

The other challenge is while there is an overwhelming demand for services, most Indian’s do not have access to these, whether its jobs, healthcare etc .Given India’s limited resources and disparity in Income not only as a nation but across the states, It requires reimagining & deconstructing how services are redesigned and delivered and using Technology to amplify India’s resources. India’s second big challenge and opportunity is creating “access” or “creating new markets” !!!

And the bridge between human capital and Access can be bridged through Technology

The fourth industrial revolution is about automation and AI - distinct and going beyond repetitive tasks to cognitive tasks

This use of technology will allow paraprofessionals (middle India) to upgrade skills and take on a more specialised roll with higher wages. The development of Middle India, will also in turn enhance the productivity of the skilled worker freeing up her/his time to focus on more skilled jobs for eg the paramedical freeing more time for the doctor

The two critical drivers that can play a critical role in this is enhanced women participation and the SME sector

A research by a leading consulting firm seems to suggest that the combined approach can add upto 30 million jobs!

There is an India - “everyday country of the senses, and then the country made of numbers”. The Approach, interspersed with stories of real life characters are poignant, relatable and inspiring .The approach of the book goes beyond just the job market and stays with you …

[Dhyani · Rating 4 out of 5]

I believe the book is an important read to understand the ramifications of new-age innovations. There is a dire need to strike a balance between adapting new technologies within our country while ensuring that we are capable of meaningful employment as we do so.

Among the many examples in the book, the one that resonated with me most was the design of public healthcare experiences.


Being a design researcher, I always work on building experiences and systems around the user. While India struggles with an insufficient medical workforce as well as inadequate public facilities to cater to its larger population, Addressing these issues requires innovative thinking: how can we enhance the experience for both patients and healthcare providers by introducing supportive roles within the ecosystem?


I particularly liked the system applied in AIIMS that employs staff to assist patients with documentation and guidance, as well as proactive appointment reminders call systems in rural districts of Karnataka. This initiative not only provides employment to people without a formal medical background but also significantly improves the experience of engaging with public healthcare infrastructure. It instills faith in public infrastructure and services and encourages health-seeking behaviours across underserved populations. 



By building trust in healthcare services and their frequent usage, we promote larger life expectancy in the country and alleviate the burden of healthcare on poorer populations, enabling them to focus on other aspects of their lives, such as education and livelihood. Women, in particular, stand to benefit, as better healthcare access allows them to balance their health needs with their economic contributions, ultimately strengthening the workforce and driving economic growth.



The ripple effect of these holistic innovations is undeniable. Improving user experiences, creating jobs, and enhancing service delivery not only strengthens infrastructure and systems but also leads to better outcomes for individuals and the country as a whole. The book highlights this aspects with great detail across sectors.


However, one critical aspect of the book is to further explore the decision-making power make behind these policies. The book frequently highlights what India should do, but who has the authority to drive these changes? The book could have benefitted more from addressing how we can transform these isolated scenarios of success into widespread sustainable practices. Who do we hold accountable to expect the better and the bare minimum? If we now know the possibilities, what are the barriers to achieving progress for our country?

[Sukhamaya Swain · Rating 5 out of 5]

It has simple solutions on seemingly complex problems of the complex nation called India. Some of the key things which I found interesting were:

1. It has solutions for increasing medical reaach.
2. It contains decent studies on woman care initiatives across few countries.
3. It highlights the necessity ans importance of care economy.
4. It gives brownies for countries like Rwanda who have consciously improved the percentage of women parliamentarians.
5. It covers the good internal stories on healthcare comung from Karnataka and Haryana.
6. It has a good amount of reaserch on the unorganised sector particularly on employement (rather unemployment) and throws a brief on the lifestyles of people inside it. Some real life problems are visited particularly emergency situations like health.
7. It explores the typical dilemma of familiesmin India w.r.t. planned spending on education, future savings and basics.
8. The challenges faced by typical entrepreneurs is well elaborated with descent case studies.
9. "Once only principle" of Estonia is also elaborated well.

Overall, the horizons covered are too huge. Needless to say, the writers are associated with TATA Sons which allows them the bandwith to explore so many aspects. Infact, I suggest first rime researchers and students should take cues from chapters relevant to their subject and design models. Why only design models, they should also explore the possibility of being entrepreneurs.

[Vinayak Hegde · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting analysis of India's "missing middle". The book looks at how the missing glue layer between the subsistence farmers and the well-paid services sector can be bridged. It looks at how a comibination of digital and human capital can be used together to improve access to education and healthcare, develop skills relevant to the Fourth Industrial Age and creating jobs by inculcating entreprenuership soft skills.

India's income groups look like barbell with people in abundance at both ends of the sprectrum - one end of the scale you have people living hand-to-mouth in poverty like sub-saharan Africa and the other end you have the rich industrialists and urbanites with riches rivaling anyone on the world. The book looks at brdging the gap using "bridigital" approaches to lift people out of poverty and increase the income and bulk up the missing middle income groups.

There are many cases studies on how this bridgital approaches can be used in healthcare, industrial policy and agriculture. The government will do well to follow some of the suggestions and not just try to game the metrics for various "ease of doing business" lists. Though one of the criticism that can be levelled on the book is that it focusses most on tata group of companies (espcially TCS). Overall a decent read.

[Prashant Thakur · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bridgital Nation looks at two key features of India in the 21st century, the overwhelming demands of basic services such as healthcare, jobs, education, and the overwhelming supply of human capital. The book highlights the importance of technology in bridging the gap between where most of the population is and where it aspires to be. Written by N Chandrasekaran, Chairmen of Board Of Tata Sons, former CEO of TCS and Roopa Purushotham Economists & Head of Policy Advocacy at the Tata Group the book identifies India's unique challenge and offer practical insight into these challenges. The authors advocate for technology that can leverage India's large human capital and set India on a path to growth and prosperity. I recommend this book to all young professionals period.

[Sourav · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was disappointed with the book. The books basically tries to find a solution to India's two major problems right now - jobs and access to vital services. The conclusion is that we can use tech to provide vital services that shall also increase jobs. However the authors clearly ignored the role of policy and didn't go into depth of these problems at all. A lot of assumptions were made about these problems by scaling a single case to pan-India. In case of healthcare, the authors believe that instead of increasing doctors, one can simply leverage current doctors using ML and AI that shall improve access of services and increase jobs. It seems more of a policy issue. Technology may be necessary here but not sufficient.

[Abhijit Biswas · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an eye opener. Challenges faced by the common man with access and job is presented clearly. The stark gap between the small segment of society with high skill and well paid jobs, with the rest of the large population of the country forced to rethink where the nation is going.

The problems are very well analysed ( obviously there are more problems those are not discussed in this book) . Solution approaches and options could make the book much more interesting.

Overall a very well articulated book that all the Indians should read to understand the challenge and opportunity of the nation.

[Tejaswini · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best Read so far

What did I like ?
The book content is as intriguing as the title of the book, it makes reader to take a step back and think in different perspective towards India's employment, skill , health progress
Instead of following someone's path it makes us create our own

The examples , case studies given are self explanatory and substantiate the points very well

And yeah the diagrams , graphs are well researched and easy to understand

What did I not like ?
The language can be little easy for new reader .


Whom I would recommend the book ?
People who are interested in public policy