Rate this book

Imagining India, Ideas For The New Century (2008)

by Nandan Nilekani(Favorite Author)

3.77 of 5 Votes: 2

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Penguin Group

review 1: 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 ... moreetc, 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.
review 2: 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'. less

Download links for: Imagining India, Ideas for the New Century

Advertising