Imagining India

This book is about India seen from the eyes of one of the bigwigs of IT Industry,Mr Nandan Nilekani(NN). The basis of this work is the interactions NN had with prominent people in government,Industry,politics, media ,NGOs and he also draws from his own experience of working in Various govenmental task forces and committees.He also expresses his ideas and also charts the path in which he would like to see the country progress.I will try to recall some excerpts from the book which I found thoughtful or interesting.
Mr NN calls himself - "an accidental enterpreneur" who got a chance to work with charismatic Narayan Murty . He also adds that if the rendezvous had not happened he would be languishing in the trains travelling from the suburbs of New Jersey to New York .What is 'languishing' for Mr NN seems to be the dream for many young Indian Professionals working in IT sector.
He describes how Computers were dreaded as some alien machines and many employee unions were up in arms against their usage.The pro computer lobby had to bring computer through backdoor. For instance in banks the computers were deployed by calling them 'Ledger Posting Machines'. The land records in Karnataka were computerized causing a massive reduction in the bribes the accountants used to get to push the files from one table to another. The ignorance of the employees about the impact of computer worked in favour of computerization. The time they discovered its impact,it had become to big to be rolled back. There were also instances of officials' warm response to computerisation as they eyed the Air Conditioners coming with the computers!!
In the the field of education at primary level there is a observation made by Nandan that people, even in rural areas, prefer private schools to govt ones. Many small 'one roomed' schools have mushroomed but learning is happening there. He endorses the 'voucher system' in which vouchers should be provided to the parents and they can pay the school of their choice with those schools with those vouchers. The private and govt schools will have to compete for vouchers and will be directly accountable to parents.
Mr Nandan also endorses a single market system in which the producers can sell their wares across states. Now the producers esp rural producers have to sell their produce to one or two buyers who dictate the prices.
He promotes the idea of investing pension funds in stock markets...For me it is a risky proposition indeed. I have seen my first salary savings fall in the stock market crash...forget about pension fund.
Overall this book is full of ideas but the roadmap to achieve those,in context of todays' prevailing conditions, are missing.