Imagining India: The Idea of a Renewed Nation

by Nandan Nilekani

A visionary look at the evolution and future of India by a preeminent business leader

India's recent economic boom—similar in scope to that of the United States during the early 1990s or Europe's during the 1970s—has triggered tremendous social, political, and cultural change. The result is a country that, while managing incredible economic growth, has also begun to fully inhabit its role on the world political stage. In this far-ranging look at the central ideas that have shaped this young nation, Infosys cofounder Nandan Nilekani offers a definitive and original interpretation of the country's past, present, and future.

India's future rests on more than simply economic growth; it also depends on reform and innovation in all sectors of public life. Imagining India traces the efforts of the country's past and present leaders as they work to develop new frameworks that suit India's specific characteristics and challenges. Imagining India charts the ideas that are crucial to India's current infrastructure revolution and quest for universal literacy, urbanization, and unification; maps the ideological battlegrounds of caste, higher education, and labor reform; and argues that only a safety net of ideas from social security to public health to the environment can transcend political agendas and safeguard India's economic future.

As a cofounder of Infosys, a global leader in information technology, Nandan Nilekani has actively participated in the company's rise in the last fifteen years. In Imagining India, he uses the global experience and understanding he has gained at Infosys as a springboard from which to discuss the future of India and its role as a global citizen and emerging economic giant.

A fascinating window into the future of India, Imagining India engages with the central ideas and challenges that face the country from within and as a part of the global economy and charts a new way forward for a nation that has proved itself to be young, impatient, and vitally awake.

Genres: India, Nonfiction, Politics, History, Economics, Business, Indian Literature

511 pages, Hardcover

First published November 25, 2008

About the author

Nandan Nilekani is an Indian entrepreneur, bureaucrat, and politician. He co-founded the IT services company Infosys in Bangalore, India.

Reviews

[Alok Mishra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nandan has the authority needed. And now, he is in the right dock - where he can make changes happen. There is some past. There is some future. And that's where the book takes us. Not great but certainly good.

[Amit Mishra · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great work by a great person. It is a kind of vision document that reflects the upcoming possibilities for India in the way of becoming the next superpower. How to lead India upfront and Indians on upfront and what should be the strategies in pursuing those tasks, Nandan's imagination deals with those.
A visionary person that led down the foundation of Adhar card in India and this thing has been used best by the Modi led NDA government. Such a great book and wonderful visionary ideas.

[Caroline · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finished. At last! It’s taken me three weeks of slow, solid reading to get through this book, and it was worth every inch of the journey.

Nandan Nilekani, the author, is co founder of the hugely successful IT company Infosys. He is at the heart of the Indian business and economic community, and initiatives to modernise the country. He really comes across as having his finger on the pulse. His perspective seems to be humanitarian as well as purely practical, and for this he acknowledges the influence of his wife, who works for an NGO.

The scope of the book is vast. He discusses a raft of issues pertinent to modern India.

Infrastructure
Cities v rural communities
Housing
Business
Education
Energy
Pensions and social security
Health
Politics
Farmers
The possibility of a national identity card
Banking
The forthcoming baby boom
Environmentalism

To many of these topics he brings a brief discussion about the history of India – British India, followed by Nehru and the socialist ideals of successive governments. This was followed by the major reforms of the 1990s, and latterly, the flowering of India, with a sparking of successful business initiatives, particularly in the high technology sector. As with all countries, India’s history has vastly shaped her current situation, and it is a major strength of the book that Nikekani has placed most of the issues discussed in their historical context.

Nikekani’s India comes across as a place of enormous strengths and enormous weakness, but his tone is always upbeat. He talks to a wide variety of innovators, reformers and policy-makers in the book, and they are full of suggestions for constructive ways forward.

I found this a fascinating and inspiring read. A must for anyone interested in contemporary India.

[Swamy Atul · Rating 4 out of 5]

So this is where Rahul Gandhi gets his ammunition of "India is an idea. India is a thought" from.
Good News
At 500 pages, you expect the book to be grounded in research. It is that, and more! The anecdotes about India's reluctance to accept technology are delectable. The one I found most amusing was about the time when Rajiv Gandhi asked Indian Railways to present data on spreadsheets and the Babus wrote it all on bed-sheets. The stories from License-Permit Raj drive home the point that it wasn't socialism, but prolonging it after it had run its course, that led to those lost decades of growth. As I turned the pages, I could see India transition from a society that mistrusts private enterprise to one that respects the spirit of the bania class.
Bad News
Abraham Maslow, of the Maslow's Pyramid fame, said "If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail." Nilekani's solution to India's problems is technology. This conveniently ignores the fact that a large number of projects (even in IT) fail because of organizational issues. This is something I have regularly felt while reading the otherwise brilliant Dilbert Blog as well. I don't know how technology can make women feel safer. Or how technology can convince a poor family to opt for education and vocational training when subsidies and grants can satisfy its immediate needs.
But then, these are the ideas of one man. We need more such people to put forward their ideas. The answers lie in the united wisdom of these experts.
All said and done, if I had to read two books about modern India, I'd pick this one right after Ramachandra Guha's "India After Gandhi".

[Vadassery Rakesh · Rating 4 out of 5]

What is a Demographic dividend? The concept was new to me before reading this book. India has more than 50% of its population below the age of 25 and more than 65% below the age of 35. It is expected that, in 2020, the average age of an Indian will be 29 years, compared to 37 for China and 48 for Japan; and, by 2030, India's dependency ratio should be just over 0.4 , ie. 60% of the population will be working. When China , USA and other major economic peers of India will be spending a major part of their money on the dependents, India will have a robust work force and a minor spending on old age. This will result in a major increase in output in terms of productivity of the nation.
But there are cases wherein such a golden opportunity was squandered, like in the case of Brazil which enjoyed such a dividend from 1980 to 2000. The mistake Brazil did was that it never created enough jobs for its young people, thereby making them waste their youthful energy doing nothing productive. India today is at cross roads having reaped rich dividends in the 20 years of economic reforms, complimented by the boon of Information Technology.
What makes India’s timing unique is that, it already knows the environmental costs the developed economies and China had to pay for their reckless development. This gives us a golden chance to mitigate the environmental impact beforehand and still maintain the growth rate. India has a per capita energy use (oil equivalent per capita) 559 kgs, which is much lower than the developed world (USA -7164) and China – 1806. This is partially because of the lack of access of electricity to the rural areas and the general low standard of life. But the positive side is we still have a chance to mould our people to keep the energy use minimum and yet maintain a decent life style, without wasting energy like the developed world do.
The book also takes references from a plethora of eminent citizens cutting across the society, be it, Sulabh International’s Bindeshwar Pathak, or the historian-thinker Ramachandra Guha, or the Father of India’s communication revolution, Sam Pitroda. The author covers seemingly trivial but hugely important for the Human Development Index, the availability of toilets in the country. He jokingly refers to the incident that forced a bride’s parents to call off the marriage to a groom whose village had no toilets. A point which India has to improve upon before sending our man to the moon, along with the other parameters like malnourishment and the skewed sex ratio. It also takes a dig at China which faces an acute social problem of grooms finding it difficult to find a girl due to an unbalanced ratio (962 females to 1000 males), a pointer to India as well.
Being a man from the Information Technology sector, he stresses the importance and the role played by the sector in the various segments of economy - a funny incident being, a State bank union opposing the computerization of banks on the pretext of people losing jobs. Today the computers have taken banking to the nook and corner of the country boosting employment be it through the public or private banks. Those days the only reason the bank employees allowed computers were for the reason that computers asked for air conditioned rooms, thereby giving them also the comfort of AC. There can be no better example of technology creating more jobs and better efficiency. Today the same bank union’s secretary gives the annual report on a power point presentation in his lap top.
Nandan Nilkani has proved that he is not only a beneficiary of the IT boom, but an asset for India in the true sense. He could have well continued his ride in a BMW, reaping more profits for Infosys. But his relinquishment of these in favour of an Ambassador car and an ordinary Government office, is a welcome sign for the all Indian Techies to start a reverse brain drain.

[Ramakrishnan M · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nandan Nilekani certainly needs no introduction. He is an icon in the corporate world - not just in India, but across the globe. I had wanted to read his book for a long time (well, right from the time the book was launched, I guess).

Naturally, I had a lot of expectations when I finally got started on this. The start was very good – he begins explaining why he is writing a book on India, and not on IT / Infosys. He rightly detected the curiosity which any reader would have, and goes to explain at length his passion around the growth and development of the whole country, and his humble attempt to energize the citizens of this country. As we move ahead, he also explains with great detail how our country has evolved since Independence, how our leaders thought about capitalism and socialism in the early days, and how things stand now. I found the musings on these lines very enlightening, because, frankly, I have never read the “economic history” of India. So far, so good…

…so what, as the pessimist may say. Unfortunately, this is where the excitement ended for me. After a point, I found a lot of repetitions in ideas. More disappointingly, “what next”, was not articulated well. The optimism of “we can do lot more” is fine; but what exactly should one be doing was not clear. Somewhere along the line, things get muddled and fuzzy. I could as well have been attending a general summit on India – with politicians and corporate leaders talking a lot, but not making any substantial “point”. I just barely managed to finish the book; thereafter, I was left pondering – “so what have I learnt to do tomorrow?”

Overall, good read on the historical evolution of Indian economy. That’s about it.

[Andy Oram · Rating 5 out of 5]

I learned quite a bit from this book, as someone outside India and the
Indian community, and thoroughly enjoyed Nilekani's writing. It's a
wide-ranging treatise with many big agendas; it covers education,
infrastructure, environmental challenges, government intervention, and
the role of historical narrative, among other things. Biggest among
its agenda--and the one that I wager will generate the most debate--is
Nilekani's own version of what I'd call a modern combination of
neoliberalism and neoprogressivism that seems to be gaining
ground. The general idea is that governments should take a leading
role to promote social progress by creating an infrastructure that
allows individuals to form their own destinies (good education, good
health care, good physical infrastructure, a light-touch form of
regulation that ensures quality, and occasional direct welfare
payments) rather than preserving oases of protection and easily abused
subsidies for particular interest groups, notably unions, small
businesses, and disadvantaged castes.

[Swasti · Rating 4 out of 5]

The fact that someone could capture the journey of the worlds largest democracy in form of ideas would have been unbelievable had this book not been written. It is for everyone and anyone who is interested in India, how it became what it is. It makes you think too much to be read in one go. You could take months and years and may be your entire life to read and learn from it and still have something left. It is one of those books that are to be digested.
Yes, the author talks about ideas but not without instances and stories. He talks of problems but not without pinpointing the causes and discussing the solutions. The numbers are woeful at times, but the tone is always hopeful.

[Nithin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very well portrayed summary of India's growth story. The book simultaneously fills one with optimism about India's potential to become an economic powerhouse and laments the lack of initiative being taken. Exhaustive in covering all the important aspects of the nation from a policy maker's perspective - health, education, political scenario, employment, the environment - the book presents a candid picture of the state of affairs in the country. It presents the transition of the country from the protectionist regime to the business friendly, open economy it is today. Regressive government policies failed to encourage Indian businesses from becoming globally competitive until very recently. We now have an immense advantage in terms of our superior demographics and skilled, english speaking population that can compete in the world job-market as well as a rising trend of private enterprises showing the way for bottom-up growth.
Our challenges lie in poor governance especially visible in low investment in basic healthcare and primary education, inability to control corruption and opacity in land-record keeping and public distribution system. Time and again, government policies have ended up benefiting special interest groups and have shown a poor track record in emancipating the poor. Vote-bank politics have buoyed economically un-viable measures such as free power and subsidies which have led to free-ridership and environmental degradation. The author has faith in the power of democracy to overthrow underperforming governments time and again and an increase in awareness in recent times that investment in infrastructure and transparency in governance are more important than sops and subsidies. The author seeks to make a personal contribution to the growth story by universalising the UID Aadhar Card to better identify and reach the target audience for public welfare programmes.
Excellent read, has made me much more aware about the ills pervading the society as well as the positive forces shaping the economy and putting it on the world map. Proud to be an Indian. Jai Hind !

[Nihar · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book after reading another masterpiece by Nandan Nilekani "Rebooting India". Therefore, my expectations were bit high and I found this book to be average in comparison. It is bit outdated as it was published in 2007-08 period. Optimism in Indian economy was on a higher side as the global economic recession had not yet taken place. Nandan doesn't talk about solutions of India's problem here,rather he discusses about India's story of economic growth from independence till 2008 period. He talks about education, health, infrastructure, energy, environment etc in details. He at times suggests some good ideas to problems persisting in India, but has refrained from going into details. A typical IT entrepreneur like ideas are not visible in this book("Rebooting India" is full of that). Like most Indians he is optimistic about our democracy but has not failed to point out problems in our political structure and policies. Nonetheless, this is a good book, but it could have been better.

[Divyesh Patel · Rating 2 out of 5]

The first 1/3 of this book was fantastic. Gave a good high level overview of India's history and its potential future, the demographic dividend and how it compares with other developing countries, and key challenges (i.e. infrastructure, healthcare, education, governance) that the nation needs to overcome in order to be a dominant power in the world.

The latter half the book is what I became challenged with as it became more political than factual. The author brought up ideas on what he thinks are needed for India to prosper, but no clear action path on how to get there or no contrarian views aside which would have helped limit his bias.

[Prabhat sharma · Rating 5 out of 5]

Imagining India: The Idea of a Renewed Nation (Hardcover) by Nandan Nilekani- I have read a book India 202 by our Ex President A P J Abdul Kalam and Y S Rajan. This book Imagining India is a continuation of the book India 2002. The present book brings forward a generalists view of post-independent India. Unlike India Unbound by Gurucharan Das, this book focuses primarily on post-independent India and takes a more pragmatic approach towards understanding the problems of contemporary India. The best parts of the book are the interesting contradictions that the nation went through – love/hate relationship with the English language, fear of technology, and neglected urban development. Overall, the book is divided into four sets of ideas, that have arrived, that are in progress, that are still being debated, and finally, that have yet to become part of public debate.
The best sections of the book have been highlighted in bold.
Ideas that have arrived
1. Realization of the power of human capital (two billion arms to work instead of a billion mouth to feed)
2. Embracing that entrepreneurs work for the society instead of exploiting it – from Nehru’s contempt for bania civilization to Manmohan’s love for businessmen who are a source of confidence and optimism for India Inc.
3. Language controversy and accepting English as lingua franca- Nehru wanted Hindi to be the official language, but due to Tamil Nadu’s resistance the declaration was delayed till 1965, and in 1965, the riots erupted again, ultimately, both English and Hindi were accepted as official languages. For education, it was decided to follow the three-language formula – Hindi, English, and a regional language. Even though we have an English-language-based economy, a political education policy that tried to suppress English teaching in government schools destroyed the future of several, especially poor, children. Over time, primarily due to outsourcing, liberalization, and private schools, the attitude towards English has changed.
4. Understanding computers are enablers instead of job eaters- The fear among labor unions that technology would destroy jobs was so great that for the computerization of banks, computers were referred to as Ledger Posting Machines. Slowly, the computerization of exchanges, NSE, NSDL, and NCDEX, and IT companies changed the perception completely.
5. Positive attitude towards globalization-From the initial fear of globalization (leading to colonialism) to globalization (which provides more opportunities, improves the standard of living, and eliminates poverty)
Ideas that are in progress-People are already aware of these and completing them is now a matter of time.
1. Better schools-The government repeatedly missed their self-declared deadlines for attaining 100% literacy but with mid-day meals and a strong preference for education among parents, things are changing for good.
2. Better cities-Just after independence, our leaders hated cities, for them, they were a symbol of the colonial past. Politics regularly favored rural development (to the extent that states showed their urban areas as rural to get funds from the center) despite the fact that India was urbanizing at a rapid pace. Badly planned urban agglomerations (and slums) are a consequence of these bad policies. The cities that were built (Chandigarh, Dispur, Durgapur, etc.) were more of symbolic importance to the leaders who failed to view the cities as the center of commerce and innovation.
3. Better highways-Despite having inherited a huge rail infrastructure from British Raj, the additions to that were minimal (till Konkan Railway project was started in the 1990s), similarity the improvements made to roads were equally insignificant. The author praises NDA for the Golden quadrilateral but laments the fact that there is a huge gap between announcement and implementation.
4. Single markets-Better infrastructure and better laws like VAT which moves towards a unified market are important (“internal globalization of India”) and moves like area-based tax exemptions hurt the economy since they penalize states which have focused on infrastructure.
Ideas in battle-Citizens and politicians are aware but afraid to talk about these.
1. Economic reforms courtesy of 40 years of the socialist era and populist policies like diesel subsidies, it’s still tough for politicians to talk about reforms
2. Labor reforms-Archaic complicated labor laws have complicated and prevented job creation (even NREGA violates 37 laws). Unfortunately, no one is willing to fix them. Steps like NREGA are retrogressive.
3. Higher education- The author laments the fact that too much political control like reservation and MHRD interference has been a major hurdle for Indian universities. A cultural preference for white-collar jobs promotes theoretical knowledge over vocational training.
Ideas to be anticipated-The ideas haven’t received their share of public debate.
1. ICT (Information and Communication Technology) E-governance, digital conversion of govt records (primarily land), and national ID system.
2. Healthcare-While rural India is still suffering from diseases like TB, malaria (due to poor healthcare), urban India is already in a grip of lifestyle diseases (obesity, diabetes). The twin problems have to be handled simultaneously.
3. Social security (or lack thereof) -While India should not follow the western model of the welfare state (which has already drained the treasuries of most western countries), the assumption that the trend of children taking care of their parents at old age will continue is equally invalid. Therefore, the author criticizes laws that make it mandatory for children to support parents and favors contribution-based pension schemes like NPS and suggests that these should be made available to the unorganized sector. The author also notes that while the pension fund of the US, UK, Australia, South Korea, and even European Parliamentarians invests in Indian stocks, Indian EPFO buys low-return government bonds instead.
4. Environment- When the western countries were growing, they were able to slowly outsource their industrial pollution to the third world (through colonization and then globalization), since that option is simply not available anymore for the developing world, they have to develop while taking care of the environment.
5. Energy- India had three major revolutions – Green (which made Haryana, Punjab, and west U.P. prosperous), White (which made Gujarat, Maharashtra, and A.P. prosperous), and IT (which impacted the educated population across the country primarily in the south), the time has come for the fourth revolution in biofuels can positively impact M.P., Rajasthan, Bihar, and east U.P. A public-private partnership-oriented energy grid from which people can buy as well as sell power to can not only reduce power shortages but Government will also encourage adoption of renewable sources of energy.
This book should be circulated to all policy framing institutions and departments of Government of India, State and Union Territory Government, all Administrative Training Institutes in India. It should be a part of libraries in Schools and colleges so that the new generation is aware of the challenges and way forward.

[Swatantra Kumar · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very thorough analysis of relevant and critical issues faced by India.If you want to know the rationale of current IT initiatives in policy decisions taken by Government, you should go through the book for eg Smart Grid Project, Direct Benefit Transfer, GIS in urban planning, NPS etc.
I liked few chapters very much for eg, India by its people, Deepening of democracy,Erasing Lines,The forest for the tree.Book shines on few aspects like giving an historical account of issues by accounting British India factor and also by providing innovative solutions.
However I also found certain over optimism on part of Market being all benign, 2008 financial crisis questions the claim of its efficiency and I also don't agree with his claim of caste annihilation through market and rejection of state policies like NREGA to promote their development.
The underlying idea of strengthening the democracy by empowering local government definitely need to be pursued through the ways suggested by Mr. Nilkeni. The book ends on the note of optimism and exhort political class to take tough stands and do away with populism.
Overall book is definitely a worth read to understand current challenges faced by India

[Ananth Subramanian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nandan Nilekani is not a professional writer. He is one of the succesful software business personality. He is the co founder of Infisys the well known Indian software company.

With this background one did not except much literay skills and expectation was a business focused book.

Well the book takes you by surprise. It is a well researched and beautifully chronicled book on what went right and what went wrong in India and the way ahead. The narration is intersting and makes for easy reading.

With its diverse culture and religions India is a mini World and what works here is most likely to work for the world as well. It is a triumph of Democracy and consnsus as opposed to unilateralism which always seems to be more effective and invariably collapses at some time or other.

With all it faults and slow progress Democracy seems to be the only way forward for India as well as the world.

I would particularly recommend this for non Indians who will get an Objective,genuine and authentic story on India.

[Raman Makkar · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read for one interested to know what happened in India after Independence regarding Industrial Revolution. What were the problems being faced to set up an industry. The licence Raj. How Tata's and Birla's emerged. And the development of IT industry in late 80's. THE DEMOGRAPHIC DIVIDEND ie. the power house of modern India. This is one of the few books i have read and this book has helped me in clearing many GD's. A must read!!!

[Caleb · Rating 1 out of 5]

After several weeks, I'm throwing in the towel. This book was relentless and boring. I've had it on my list to read for 9 years and I'm disappointed that it was so unreadable. Slow, dense, circular, and repetitive. Read Edward Luce's book. Skip this one.

[Akkinapelli Sandeep · Rating 4 out of 5]

Our ability to tackle challenges that lie ahead will determine our fate in coming years

[Roshan · Rating 5 out of 5]

The entrepreneur, the visionary leader, and the author in Nandan Nilekani presents to readers a stream of mind-boggling insight and perspective on India's march ahead in a technology-driven modern world in his book titled Imagining India: Ideas For The New Century. As the title suggests, the book puts forth author's views on development, implementation, effective execution, and completion of several impending national and industrial projects on various front in our socio-economic sphere. Based on his understanding of country's economic and political structure, the author has persistently weighed his views on the need for developing a continual mindset for identification of problems hindering growth in various components of our social, economic, and political structure. The author Nandan Nilekani has put his best foot forward in proposing several innovative, intellectual, politically correct corrective measures to be inculcated in India's social and digital infrastructure. A striking feature of Nandan Nilekani's take on intricate matters in Imagining India is that it is in complete agreement with the ambitions nurtured and endeavours pursued by several youth contingent of our country. Imagining India: Ideas For The New Century by Nandan Nilekani is about progress, prosperity, and development that await India in the 21st century. The author's vision on India as a developing nation and the need for implementation of various corrective procedures in country's social infrastructure take centre-stage in the compilation. The author's work promote and endorse new, refreshing innovative objectives with purposeful focus and dedication to tackle strategic deficiency identified at operational levels in various business development sectors. The thought-provoking work emphasizes the need for a determined effort from India's administrative authorities and governing bodies to resurrect and revive country's failing image of a fiercely competitive world competitor, and to aid its empowerment by overcoming infrastructural woes along with other social, political, and economic hurdles. True to the totalitarian outlook adopted by developed nations during their period of struggle, revival, and subsequent emergence as world's major superpowers, the author proposes a more conservative approach for achieving country's objectives without foregoing the fundamental ideologies of totalitarianism. In other words, the work focuses on providing intuitive totalitarian perspective of a mild form to champion the cause of making India a digital superpower and help it dive deep into the ocean of substantial economic growth. Mr. Nilekani has put into good effect his vast experience on professional front as head of one of India's leading IT companies -Infosys, to propound the necessity of devising collective futuristic goals for India, and the role of Information Technology in accelerating implementation process of the devised goals. It helps that one of Digital India's most influential and prolific IT professional embarks on a journey of carving out new initiatives to tackle challenges and questions the technically savvy modern world is posing to India, through an informative and knowledgeable 544-page compilation. The wide, ever-expanding element of vulnerability observed in India's socio-economic condition is exposed to a fresh set of revival strategies and propositions from the author. The revered Infoscion leaves no stone unturned in unraveling the inputs provided by various professionals from the software industry and by other technology heads in our country, further reiterating a reader's sufficing exposure to surfeit progressive measures with the read and the need for embracing a definitive motion to promote this work in unison. The core motif in Mr. Nilekani's writing is the emphasis laid on team work, man management and strong work ethics which constitute the defining elements in an organization's or nation's quest for sustained growth and progress. The book openly embraces broader perspective on establishing reliable interconnectivity within the geographical bounds of a country encompassing interlinked communication and road transport infrastructure development conglomerate firms. The systematic approach adopted by the author in penning formidable challenges knocking the door in India's socio-economic setup serve the bibliophiles well with every page flip.

The author's preference and liking for gathering information in a systematic and well organized manner in addition to skillful choice of words lend the work the desired finishing touch. The absorbing read accounts for an interesting reading experience with the four-pronged volume arousing every bookworm's curiosity by unveiling the matter on hand in four parts which describe India's transformation since acquiring independence, beginning with the initial phase of stagnant growth observed in country's economy to the industrial revolution that facilitated deployment of several key technologies and techniques in the manufacturing sector to speed up the production of basic essentials. Amidst the mention of these progressive occurrences, the book elaborates India's bold step toward liberalization of economy that allowed inflow and outflow of capital to and from foreign markets with considerable success following the dynamic leadership of the then finance minister, Mr.Manmohan Singh. The book, in leaps and bounds elucidate the advent of information technology and the subsequent rapid growth observed in India's private sector. Nandan Nilekani, in his writing venture brings to light the viewpoints and benefits from his several immersed interactions with dignitaries from various industries, economists and reformers, and government officials occupying several important positions in ministry of finance and technology. The most fascinating aspect of Nandan Nilekani's writing is his ability to jot down the matter on hand and follow it up with an insightful dissemination of information through a broader outlook. The author's keenness to paint a larger picture on India's potential for growth is evident from the manner in which he obliges all sections of the economic and political hierarchy with instinctive flair and collective wisdom. The ability to differentiate between distinguished socio-economic-business model of developed and developing nations besides pinpointing common ground in their infrastructure to establish a firm correlation with the definitive, purposeful patterns which frame our country's socio-economic- business model, and proffer feasible solutions to mitigate defects in its hierarchy seem to adhere instinctively with author's persona. The four-pronged compilation poses several sincere questions to its reader regarding globalization, the need to touch upon various subjects concerned with economic ideologies to arrive at solutions which are guarded by longevity and feasibility. Further, the social challenges and economic hurdles encountered by entrepreneurs in India by virtue of corrupt practices by government representatives and officials in charge of administrative units, and the role of Information Technology in curbing corruption through digitization of government and consumer services get the desired degree of author's attention. The business icon invariably has established his viewpoint based on the influence of Eastern political ideologies on mindset of people living in India and in other countries. As the author dives deep into the Malthusian way of governance and administration that the Chinese contingent adopted following the formation of Marxist regime in European countries, a wave of rational wisdom reins over author's reasoning on the matter. He precisely presents world's opinion of India and its citizens through eyes of million citizens to strike a chord with their views about our country. In short, the author's inclination lies toward understanding principles which govern autocratic and democratic form of government.

The first part is essentially a chore describing India's history on all fronts and its tryst with destiny since the end of British rule. The author brings to fore India's unwillingness to embrace the ghost named modernization. India, in its first few years after independence went into a nutshell showing reluctance in opening its door for liberalization of economy. This aspect i.e. the conservative approach of various Indian governments from the past cost India dearly for it dragged on for decades harming country's overall growth prospect. The struggle and success which came India's way during this tumult receives author's appreciation and disapproval in equal measure. Capitalism is another apparition that Imagining India enlightens the bibliophiles on. Demographics (population explosion), conflict with neighboring countries, entrepreneurship, anti-incumbency factor that gained momentum at different point in time under governance of various political regimes, the progress-driven resurrection of Indian business establishments following industrial revolution, the exposure of Indian businesses to foreign exchange trade, Bombay's business polygamy beginning with Bombay Plan to Bombay Club to Bombay House, India's roller coaster journey with the language English, the use of English as a tool to make inroads into the vast European literature to allow its influence on nationalism, the conflict between southern and northern states on use of English as the official language, India's negative response to pro-technology policy, re-emergence of Information Technology with economic liberalization, the march of information technology in Indian banking sector, information technology's roar in elections and railways, besides several similar pilot and full-fledged projects have their relevance touched upon by the author in the book.

The entrepreneur Nandan Nilekani's jovial nature is evident from the hilarious snippets chosen by him for inclusion in his work. One snippet for laughs that mock Soviet Union and their workforce for lack of enthusiasm shown in advanced technology invents the hilarious one-liner - 'Robots don't drink'. The witty remark is an excerpt from an interview of Soviet Union's policy makers when asked to comment on Soviet's intentional make-over in Information Technology sector and Robotics.

The second part focuses on channeling its energy on education sector imparting to readers knowledge on evolution of government and private schools, education schemes introduced by government further adding the impact of progressive technology on shift from physical classroom learning to online classroom learning. The matter presented in this part throws light on rapid development in infrastructure that took place in urban India with surge of IT sector. With further page flip, the bookworms are bound to discover complexities of SEBI directives and GDP which have defined fluctuations in Indian economy over the years.

The third part delves deep into details associated with conflict of interest arisen on more occasions than one in Indian political system due to constant change in governance over last three decades. The turn of events during periods of political stir have prevented several innovative initiatives from seeing the light of day. The bulk of initiatives waiting in queue to come into effect are those which were abandoned due to change in governance in our country. The varying political ideology and development philosophy of India's major political parties are in a way responsible for infrastructure projects to hang in the balance, get delayed, or shelled. The need for expansion of fluctuating job market for it to reach the remotest towns in India, the structuring of a movement to facilitate the same, the rise of capitalist states, the need to introduce variant growth policies, the solutions implemented thus far by India to curb corruption, author's defense of the ever doubted credibility of Indian universities, the trifling with education policies, the task of establishing the sense of our universities through a democratic viewpoint and collaboration of these fundamentals of constitution to arrive at a foolproof plan to eliminate the defects is the subject touched upon by the author in the penultimate segment.

The fourth part explores the impact Information Technology initiatives undertaken by private IT sector in collaboration with government have had on globalizing India and its states. The sophisticated technology we get to experience at every nook and corner of our cities have been crucial in projecting India on the global map as one of world leaders in Technology. Technology has gained entry into every household in urban India. A fact, citizens of India may not have been in position to affirm three decades ago. A section in this part is dedicated to several land reforms that have made task of contesting lands easier through effective use of technical procedures. India's ambition to create national information utilities and make it readily available to the masses through a well defined electronification framework also features in author's ideas for re-imagining India. The influence of advanced technology on healthcare and the challenges our country is facing at the hindsight of tremendous progress achieved in biotechnology and use of sophisticated medical equipment occupy considerable writing space in author's researched thesis. The work approaches the end leaving readers with plethora of positives on India's socio-economic growth and infrastructure, political system and its optimism, schemes proposed to resolve social insecurities of countrymen, paramount attention to farmers' issues and ways to curb their debts, growing concerns over environment due to felling of trees and industrialization, the solutions for our energy needs, use of foreign equipment, technique, and technology for quality assurance and industrial efficiency, meeting demand in our oil needs, prioritizing energy policy, addressing importing inefficiencies, devising revised strategy for handling renewable energy, establishing localized Research & Development centres to benefit from self-sustained economic growth and economic empowerment awaiting India in the twenty first century.

Imagining India: Ideas For The New Century by Nandan Nilekani captures the imagination of a progressive thinker and leader in a precise manner to churn out India's prospects of attaining accelerated economic growth taking into account an all-round view on the development aspect. The author is hard hitting and straight forward in his approach of penning matter when it comes to delivering criticism on failure of political and economic setup in India. The best aspect of Mr. Nilekani's writing is his uncurbed enthusiasm for identifying, understanding, and proposing solutions for India's problems on various front. His ability to perceive matter on a broad-spectrum with open-mindedness gets highlighted frequently in the read. Imagining India: Ideas For The New Century by Nandan Nilekani acquires 5 points to exhaust all points in my points table to render it a state 0. A politician will find Imagining India useful after completing the read. A reformer will find Imagining India purposeful after completing the read. An economist will find Imagining India tactful after completing the read. A techie will Re-imagine India after completing the read. And, a bibliophile will doze off Imagining India to experience virtual reality. A brilliant read which adds a new dimension to our imagination. Have fun to develop a vision - A vision for progressive India.

[Kenneth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nandan Nilekani's book Imagining India encompasses the central ideas that shaped modern India, which have contributed to the country's progress, as well as those ideas that stifled its growth. He writes this book on the basic premise that, it is not economic growth alone that decides the country's future, also reform and innovation.

He adopts a topical approach to elaborate the ideas that are in various stages of gestation. The ideas that have already arrived, ideas in progress, ideas widely debated and ideas that are yet to become a part of our public debate.

Through the book's introduction, author clarifies that his book is on India, not on Infosys or IT industry, and also he reveals the purpose of his meticulous attempt to write this book. Victor Hugo's statement “More powerful than the mighty armies is an idea whose time has come” would be the best quote to express the author's inspiration. Though he admits that his view is of an avid amateur, we shall not forget the unique advantage he has gained through his career in private sector and public policy. With this unparalleled experience, the author presents an 'idea based approach' towards our various challenges without failing to give solutions to them.

In the first part of this book the author depicts how an entire country changed its mind on core beliefs. The transition of policy makers perception on our population, from that of an 'overwhelming burden' to that of a 'valuable human capital', mainly due to the rise of knowledge based industries. The change in
attitude towards entrepreneurs from being suspected as devious capitalists to being adulated as 'the source of India's confidence and optimism'. The metamorphosis of our usage of English in India from a language primarily for international business, into social-political reform language and finally into a career language. The shift in sentiments on 'electronification' from mistrust and hostility to trust and hospitality. The transformation of our comprehension of the role we can play in the world especially after the 1991 reforms. The conversion of our faith in governance from totalitarianism to an entirely alien idea called democracy and the way we 'held on to it through upheavals both good and bad'.

In the second part, Nilekani describes how India's progress, after it has adorned a new avatar, have automatically jettisoned the challenges we are facing in some key sectors. In primary education, he highlights our government's neglect and misguided focus on building schools rather than improving the quality of schooling. In Indian cities, he brilliantly unwraps the crisis our urban areas are facing since independence, identifying that the marginalization of cities in our political theater as a root cause of this crisis. In commodity markets, he stresses on the need for economic unity of India through the emergence of unified single markets for all good and services, terming it as 'India's internal globalization'.

In the third part, he deals with the ideas which are widely debated and are so sensitive that they would rapidly derail into white-hot emotional arguments resulting in a deadlock. He blames 'incomplete market reforms' and despicable implementation of previous reforms, for this state of deadlock, which have benefited people already positioned to take advantage and excluded a large chunk of disadvantaged sections. This disadvantaged and excluded population, who obviously seek upward mobility, turned towards caste based reservations and government subsidies as their only hope. The author believes that, higher education and employment in government offices are the most unlikely causalities of this system, which led to a 'hyper-Darwinian selection process'. He reveals the irony of ironies, where in recent times the high cast communities are demanding that they be classified downwards to reap the benefits of reservation.


In the final part, Nilekani recommends ideas which must become part of our public debates as they are being debated in the developed world. In the absence of such debates, the author feels, our policy makers are relegating the issues on health, pension,environment and energy to the backstage,whipping them off as 'rich nation's concerns'. The transition of our health issues from 'shortage-based sicknesses' such as malnutrition to 'excess-based illnesses' such as obesity and heart disease. Changing realities of our families and oldage support systems, mainly due to the impact of economic growth on the joint family system, have made universal pension system all the more an imperative. He rightly quoted Rajiv Gandhi's statement, “development which destroys the environment eventually destroys the development itself” to highlight our government's prioritization of 'development over environment'. India's mutation into an energy intensive economy without being adequately prepared for this change have adversely undermined India's broader geopolitical ties.

In the end, he concludes by advocating the need for a 'bazaar model' of development, which is primarily a bottom-up approach with open systems. His solutions to all the challenges he highlighted are novel with special emphasis on the strategic use of ICT. He prescribes both capitalistic solutions like encouraging inventive entrepreneurship to resolve our energy and economic crisis and socialistic solutions like implementing universal-mandatory-voluntary pension system, health and school vouchers for the poor and universal unique-ID cards. The authors depiction of the white knuckle measures of family planning during the Malthusian hysteria of 1960's and the advantages of a demographic dividend with a double hump unique to our country are the topics I liked the most.

Nilekani in this book full of ideas remained optimistic and pragmatic while dealing with all these challenges. Though the book requires lot of attention and concentration while reading, the author's own experiences and interactions with leading opinion leaders are very insightful. He made many fascinating literary references and his choice of words for the book's witty titles are terrific. Detailed notes for reference and timeline of key events at the end of the book are resourceful. I sincerely recommend this book to be read by young patriots who are interested in figuring out the 'Great Indian Paradox'.

[Raja Sankar · Rating 2 out of 5]

Author goes on and on about India's problems but offers little solution. As India's problems are creation of socialist ideas and Nehruvian Idea of India, Author as a Congress Party member can't criticize or offer a solution without criticizing Socialist ideas. One example was and is still, civic works in Bangalore. Civic works in not only Bangalore, all over India is a mess because, local people doesnt have any power to control the local bodies. Add to the executive branch compromising of IAS officers are not accountable to any one. Govt officers can't be held accountable for any delay in project or mismanagement of the projects.

Instead of focussing on administrative reforms, author goes round and round about India's issues so much so that, it looks like a laundry list of problems. Expect few details about how Infosys needed permission from Govt, book is very disappointing.

[Ranjith Raghunathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The depth of awareness about INDIA, its problems, its people, its politicians, its policies this man possesses or has researched before writing this book is incredible. I can see he touched everything about INDIA, the early Nehrus to the last congress gov while writing the book.

However the great discovery is that Modi has implemented every single idea that Nandan has mentioned in this book. Every single one of them. I am sure Modi read this book or got a clear presentation from Nandan and he ensured the fruits are reaped for our country.

Take this phrase and read the book to agree with me - Nandan Nilekani proposed in this book and Modi implemented all of them in just the first 2 years!
License raj abolishment, demographic dividend & importance of upskilling people to reap dividend - especially UP where the population is highest, Aadhar & payments through bank account, subsidy abolishment and even NPS. Everything is now implemented.

[Nikhil Mulinti · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nandan's Imagining India is one of the best book, explaining post independence Indian growth. As an IT billionaire, I was expecting a lot of IT's contribution to Indian growth from him in this book, but to my surprise he covered a wide range number of subjects starting from Infrastructure to Environmentalism.This was not just an empty rhetoric, he met lot of experts in all these field and took great care in writing. I personally liked his conversations with those experts.As soon as you finish the book, you will realize that Nandan almost met entire Intellectual base in India,who were part of India's growth story.

First chapter was a dull read, where he tried to give overall history of India but once he starts the historical monologue of each issue,reading becomes more insightful.

[Divya Dugar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading Imagining India was a pleasure. It was a treasure trove of insight into the way our country has developed, and with it, how the IT boom has happened. Though the book is about a decade old, its ideas and explanations of the past still hold true.

To read a book written by an Indian living and working in India was quite a breather, otherwise, most popular books on India end up being written by authors with foreign degrees or by those who are settled abroad. The book is grounded and presents a very informative read.

However, in the initial chapter, sometimes, it seems as if the author is presenting a case for Infosys.

I would certainly give it a place in my library and pick it up on a lazy afternoon.

[Saurabh Joshi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another FT - Mckinsey business book of the year nominee in my shelf! It is also the second book on India (after "The World is Flat"(2005) by Friedman) to be a part of the shortlist. Somehow I could not help thinking that "The World is Flat" managed to provoke different kinds of responses from different people especially from people of Indian origins. Probably because India cannot be explained easily in one book.
The first response I think came in 2007 from Pankaj Ghemawat , an Indo-American professor, came up with a book called "Redefining Global Strategy: Crossing Borders in a World Where Differences Still Matter". He then gave a TED talk that the world is not flat and went on to create a website where you can check the level of your globalization (which would turn out to be abysmally low always thus proving the world is not flat)
"Imagining India" came later in 2009 (understandably so, considering it huge size) in which Nilekani goes into his own story telling of Indian history and what lies ahead. Was he trying to expand on the idea of Friedman or did he sense a skewed image of India building up in global arena as an outsourcing hub. What motivated him to write this books is anybody’s guess.
Anyway, the book talks about history of India, the forces that shaped this country, its culture, literacy, population …. and usual parameters, but from the eye of an entrepreneur .The last part is most refreshing . It talks about specifics like government plans on education, housing, electricity and all the efforts made post-independence, how much it succeeded and where all it failed. He presents the view from a global perspective - shares views of specialists with whom he interacts - which makes the book more credible and understandable to the outside world. The tone is quite neutral as does not apologise for the shortcomings not tries to sell an unrealistic idea. He still provides an optimistic view of India presenting its demographic dividend and English speaking population as the greatest strength.
The book is content wise very rich and can probably be replace a text book on India, however it can be too tiring to complete because of information overload. However, I would still recommend it over other books on India as it is more relevant in context of business and economics than others.

[Abhay Navada · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a good read for anyone who wonders why India is what it is today. If you often seem to get frustrated and think why certain age-old policies still exist in India, this is a good place to start to understand why this is so, as the author covers a wide range of topics such as infrastructure, educations, health, agriculture, etc. and India's relationship with these fields through its history. Also, the author is optimistic when he voices his opinion on what India's future looks like. But, the book failed to grab my attention for long, and I ended up reading only a few pages everyday.

[Latika Deo · Rating 5 out of 5]

While the book was written in 2009, it is an amazing map on how far the country has progressed post independence. Nilekani has addressed different issues and developments in the country in a chronological manner. While the book is detailed and Nilekani had painstakingly covered every aspect of the Indian politics and economy, the book often makes you reflect on how much the country has progressed since 2009 and what the country requires to proceed further. This book should be made compulsory for every politician, bureaucrat, entrepreneur, student and anyone who thinks that they are a brick in the wall.

[Aniket Kothavale · Rating 5 out of 5]

India personified !! We get confused, we badger, we complain, we cry out to our political, economical and social setbacks without much clue. Nothing makes sense, as we know the portion of this India in the way we live with it, from our birth. Nandan Nilekani holds you and introduces India right to its roots - with all the perfections and otherwise. After 500 pages of revealing, one ends up knowing India as never before and on a level; inspires an Indian to act on an outlined future. Must read for the ones with a burning need to understand India- in just the way it actually is....

[Soumen Sadhu · Rating 5 out of 5]

From pre- British; to Britesh and then history of India and Asian subcontinent till 1999 are arranged so beautifully and correlation woven thoughout every pages. History; economy; Geopolitical situation; how decision making evolved and why those decision were taken then evething have been covered unbiased way by Sri Nandan Nilekani sir. Well researched with lots of facts and figures to establish the underlying cause and the analysis. One the Greatest book I read in 2022.

[Azwa Ahmad · Rating 3 out of 5]

The central theme of this book is ‘reformation’ and the element is extremely ubiquitous from the beginning till the end of the book. The movement of idea, as what Nilekani suggested, is the impetus that will drive reformation in order to achieve the governments’ political, economic and social objectives. In this belief is where I can see Nilekani’s sense of hope and optimism comes from, in which he passionately anticipates that the ideas and the implementation of the ideas will transform India as a ‘renewed nation’; a truly progressive nation, ready and unhesitant in reaping its promising demographic dividends.

A reformed country in variety of aspects especially in education and job creations, among many others; health care, social security, environment, energy etc, would invariably benefit the country a great deal. Yet, as Nilekani wrote; “As I traveled around India, I realized that this feeling, this intense belief in the future, has not yet infiltrated our governments.” Reformations are stalled in the face of bureaucratic tangles, and politics that are deeply entrenched with caste, religions, and regions interests do not offer much to flip the situations around and works as an assurance of the ideas’ decadence. In this light, I believe that this book is written ultimately for the Indian politicians, less for the common readers. This is a long letter for them as a response of his frustration when a prominent politician censured him by saying “I don’t see much upside in talking to you- you’re neither good for notes (money) nor vote” when he tried to propose some policy ideas. It is obvious that most of the politicians’ unwillingness and resistance to change are due to their populist politics compulsions that eventually have framed their mind-set and consequently their moves in policy making into ones that are populist and popular in nature, despite often time being short-lived and ineffective. Reform ideas are usually unfashionable and unpopular, making them less favorable in the politicians’ eyes, despite the long-term benefits that could be derived from them.

Although Nilekani mentioned that the governments are slowly changing, thanks to the democratic pressure from the ground, his hope and optimism however, do not resonate well with that of mine. The speed of change is excruciatingly slow. Despite Nilekani’s persistence and insistence that India could become one of the powerhouses, the optimism remains a porous and creaky one, too far-fetched in my opinion. Infrastructure progress remains one of the blockages of growth, India is the home for almost a third of the world’s poor, access to clean water is a major concern, sanitation crisis leads us to see almost half of the population defecate in public, and the deeply segregated community never tires to perplex me.

Class, ethnic and religion discrimination is the type of discriminations that I am familiar with. Though they are not acceptable, they are understandable. However, I can hardly comprehend caste discrimination as it is just too foreign and too complex for me. Caste discrimination is the ‘apartheid-style’ discrimination, as one suggested. Caste discrimination is the Indian discrimination towards Indians. I had a hard time to trace the origins of this kind of discrimination, and the intense complexity I had to face to make sense of this belief was tantamount to the intricacy of understanding the Indian’s Gods. The existence of caste certificate, aside from birth certificate, agitates me even further. Even though the certificate entitles the holder with certain privileges- the access towards educations and jobs that are reserved based on caste reservation system, the certificate appears to (wrongly) legitimize this very type of discrimination. Caste discrimination aggravates the political and social ills and deepens inequality.

‘Upper’ castes have the access to the economics wealth as powerful politicians from the respective castes channel the wealth exclusively for them. This has ensured upwards mobility in economics ladder for the certain, privilege castes, sidelining the less privilege, often the lower castes. Eventually, we can see that large proportion in the upper class is being made up by the upper castes, while the lower class is often associated with the lower castes. Surely it would be a hard task to unwind (especially) caste discrimination since it is deeply embedded in the Indians’ mind-set, however regressive and oppressive it is.

As a distant observer, I am rather a pessimist (unfortunately this seems like a default stance) and being extremely cautious placing my hopes in this nation, unlike Nilekani. I am more inclined to assess the country in terms of its effectiveness in addressing social issues, and so far the country proves to be unsuccessful in this, regardless of the economic advancement shown. This is a country of two extremes, fast developing, yet grimly poor at the same time. I am aching in pain to see Nilekani’s optimism, whilst the governments and the politicians appear to be nonchalant about India’s future. Nilekani seems to be implying that the people are ready to move forward, only that the government is barricading them. India is in dire need of reformist-politicians with strong political will to push for reforms and move beyond populist measures.

[Tushar Udernani · Rating 2 out of 5]

Firstly I had great expectations from this book because it was written by very highly regarded men in India. But to be frank I was disappointed after reading this its just another book criticizing India in one way or the other though the men has done what most people cant even think of for India. I felt its just another Shashi Tharoor Book.