American India Foundation ( AIF) and MIT India presents award winning entrepreneur Nandan Nilekani, Co-Founder, Infosys Technologies, with his new book ‘Imagining India: The Idea of a Renewed Nation’

What happens when a nation of one billion people transforms itself with a legacy of ideas? Does it translate to innovation and reform in all sectors of Public life? One of India’s most successful entrepreneur and Times’ 100 most influential person, 2006, Nandan Nilekani answers these in his new book ‘Imagining India’. He will be discussing his book at 6:30 p.m. on Friday, March 27th, 2009 at Building E51-345, MIT campus, Cambridge, MA.

He examines the ideas and attitudes that have evolved with the times and contributed to our progress, and also those that keep us shackled to old, unproductive and fundamentally undemocratic ways. He discusses how, despite good intentions and astonishing idealism, our early socialist policies stifled growth and weakened our democracy; how, contrary to received wisdom, India’s large and overwhelmingly young population has now become our greatest strength; how information technology is revolutionizing not just businesses but also governance in the everyday life of a vast majority of Indians; and how rapid urbanization is transforming both our society and our politics.

In the book, Nilekani gives a fascinating new perspective on the world’s largest democracy’s challenges ahead and the unproductive, fundamentally undemocratic ways that can be a hinder to its growth. He also talks about the role software has played in India in the past few decades and how it will continue to do so. In his book he presents 18 ideas that are categorized into four different forms – ideas that have arrived, ideas in progress, ideas in battle, and ideas to anticipate.

Thomas Friedman, an author, once said, “Seattle has Bill. Bangalore has Nandan. . .  What makes Nilekani unique? For me it comes down to one phrase: great explainer. . .  It was his insight that the global playing field was being ‘leveled’ by technology that inspired me to write the book The World Is Flat.”

This event is hosted by the American India Foundation (AIF), a nonprofit American development organization that is devoted to accelerating social and economic change in India. AIF works with partners to implement programs in education, livelihood, and public health sectors in India - with emphasis on elementary education, women's empowerment, and HIV/AIDS, respectively. It has invested in over 100 Indian non-governmental organizations while raising about $50 million since its inception. It is one of the largest secular, non-partisan American organizations supporting development work in India.

For this event, AIF partners with MIT-India Program that facilitates dynamic connections between the thinkers and idea makers of the MIT community and their counterparts in India. Drawing from an extraordinary network of renowned research institutes, universities, and corporations, the MIT-India Program aims to be as vital and multifaceted as the country it represents.



Nandan Nilekani is the Co-Chairman of the Board of Directors of Infosys Technologies Limited. He is the recipient of several awards, including the prestigious Joseph Schumpeter prize for innovative services in economy, economic sciences and politics. Nilekani was listed as one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time in 2006 and was named Forbes “Businessman of the Year” for Asia in 2007. In 2006, Nandan was conferred the Padma Bhushan, one of the highest civilian honors awarded by the Government of India.
 Nilekani received his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology in Bombay.

|