Imagining India: Ideas For The New Century

India, the democratic juggernaut, with myriad cultures, communities and conflicting interests is a conundrum not easy to unravel. Yet, India has plodded the treacherous path rather remarkably, offering new insights and keys to survival. Nandan Nilekani’s “Imagining India” traces the history of India and the impact of its emergence as a key determinant of South Asia’s, if not the world’s, geo-political and socio-economic environment.

Nandan Nilekani talks not just about India’s nagging problems, but also about its latent strengths in all walks of life, which remains to be fully explored and exploited. India has celebrated the rise of entrepreneurs, with grit and determination, who have thrived despite odds, overcoming numerous challenges in the form of bureaucratic hurdles, political turmoil and natural calamities. Nandan Nilekani’s “Imagining India” can be seen as a tribute to India – a nation full of promise amidst strife and chaos, often defying logic, and yet gradually emerging from its shadows, striving to unlock its potential to become a leading light.

Nandan Nilekani’s reflects on the legacy of India’s bonded past, which nevertheless has also given the nation a rich amalgamation of cultural traditions, arts and heritage.
This has also contributed uniquely in the transformation of ancient India, though not entirely without fits and starts, into a modern, developing economy.

The 1980s saw the telecom revolution taking the nation by storm. The 1990s saw IT in its new avatar with TCS, Wipro and Infosys propelling the nation in the global arena. The 21st century saw Delhi Metro emerging as the best run mass transit system, setting the bar for professional excellence in project execution. “Imagining India” talks about the rhetoric shifting from bare necessities to infrastructure creation.

If you love India, go ahead and read the book. You will start loving it even more!

Jayant Sinha
Dehradun

Coming from Nilekani the book does raise expectations.However the basic premise of dabbling in ideas makes the book an exercise in examining the possibilities.To that extant the author comes out as clear minded with a grasp of the socio evonomic issues concerning contemporary india.The language and presentation are straight and donot indulge in the gimmecry of impressing the readers with jargon or high sounding phrases.

May be the book could be edited to be more cfocussed and reach out to the younger generation.
The hard bound copy with price at around Rs 700 is definitely a dampener for the target reader group.A qucik translation and reaching out to the youngersters in the hinterland may be the thing.

Donot certainly agree with those who ascribe motives of money,publicity to Nandan.. the urge to reachout to new ,younger consttuants is transparant....
Good effort.
REcommand for must read for the 18-25 year old.

With due respect to the leaders Nandan Nilekani and Infosys I must say INfosys/TCS is the biggest slave trader of 21st century , they send lot of young boys with dreams in their eyes to US and I have heard the families like it a lot but here the youngsters face the harshness of a foreign land . I have talked to some of the boys and even though they dont say it I know this company Brain Washes these youngsters to customer satisfaction etc and their managers keep pushing them to the limit till these guys loose all motivation and craze of life . Theese guys are paid good but their lives suck big time .
I dont think a person like Nandan who cant understand a bit about its employees , can do anything for India. These good boys should be valued by their company .

Imagining India: Ideas For The New Century
(Hardcover - 25-nov)
by
Nilekani Nandan
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if it is real thought which reallly change the mind of youth then why it is too costly,it is very hard to pay.lower down the price of book then may be the youth of middle class are been able to read this book.and after that may be the stuff in the book will be able to change their mind and mentality. by the way its good to write book like this . it is paradigm shift

I had not read any reviews or even heard much about this book when I 'discovered' it by accident. Expecting an entrepreneurial tale, if Infosys, Technology and building organizations, I instead discovered an engrossing, comprehensive, balanced and surpringly eloquent (even poetic, at times!) take on India's past, present and future. It is difficult to 'categorize' this book into any genre - but I think, that once these ideas have been imbibed, it is equally difficult not to be swayed by the arguments and ideas it contains. Great read.