A talk by Nandan Nilekani at Consulate General of India, New York office

The Consulate General of India, New York, organized a talk by Nandan Nilekani, co-chairman, Infosys Systems and one of the founding fathers of India’s information technology outsourcing industry at the Consulate Ball Room on March 25, 2009. The guests included representatives of business, financial institutions and academics from Economic and Business fields.

Prabhu Dayal, Consul General of India, in his welcome address thanked the Indian community in USA for working together to build a friendly and a mutually benefiting relationship between India and USA. He stated that the Consulate had been organizing lectures, discussions and seminars on the topics of interest for both USA and India. In this series, he welcomed Nilekani, recalling his achievements and contribution to India’s IT development.

Nilekani, in his address, stated that India’s demographic dividend could be encashed for growth and development in India through investment in human resources, infrastructure, creative innovation and enterprise. He elaborated on ideas ranging from the impact of democracy, globalization and demography on India’s growth. He said India faced several challenges like infrastructure development, primary and higher education, urbanization, labour reforms etc. He also suggested that the growing needs for energy, communication, transport and housing should be met with new, creative ideas - some of which he had articulated in his book, Imagining India: Ideas for the New Century. Taking a lesson from history of developed nations, he said that India could find solutions to problem like social security, clean energy and environment sustainability, as well as its ability to deal with lifestyle-related afflictions, in its own creative ways.

A lively discussion followed Nikelani’s address where issues like land reforms, urbanisation pressures, ways to provide primary and higher education, health care, ecological balance, etc were deliberated upon.

BY VRN