6. Globalization embraced
Finally, he said India had adopted a progressive view of globalization although acknowledging that "even though there is still a lot of criticism of and opposition to globalization, fundamentally the confidence that India has gained has made our world view on globalization far more positive."
"Our companies have become globally competitive and are willing to go out and global factors are really playing in India's favour today. More and more people are beginning to become far more comfortable with globalization and they are realizing the benefits of an open economy, they are realizing the benefits of having their workers and their people all over the world, and they are realizing the benefits of Indian companies exporting capital abroad."
During the interaction that followed, Nilekani was challenged on several fronts, including on his demographic dividend argument, with one questioner asking: What is the assurance that the youth will receive good education that would prevent them from becoming "unemployed troublemakers in the next 10 to 15 years."
Nilekani acknowledged that "while you have all these advantages of a demographic dividend, unless you do the right thing, a demographic dividend can become a demographic disaster... if you don't have education and jobs for all these young people, you are actually creating a very combustible social environment."
He reiterated that "just having these advantages is not enough. There is a lot of work ahead in really reforming and improving the quality of education -- both primary and secondary."
Nilekani said that having just a few Indian Institutes of Technology or Indian Institutes of Management is no panacea. "You need to have hundreds of them, like they have in China. You need to create an environment where more jobs get created. So all that work is still yet to be done. So, by no means am I saying that you can declare victory at this point."
Image: The Bombay Stock Exchange building. | Photograph: Pal Pillai/AFP/Getty Images
Also read: Petrol: The costliest and cheapest nations
Advertisement
