For this India needs to balance its aspirations and resources, the mismatch of which creates innovation. India should fold the future rather than extrapolate the past, and take small clear steps.
The emerging issues will be about income inequality rather than poverty, and about lifestyles, universality of aspirations, impact on world prices, moving from 'bottom of the pyramid' to 'straddling the pyramid' and the environmental impact of development.
Income mobility needs to be increased to tackle income inequality, said the Professor, whose earlier predictions about double-digit growth in India and the growth of Indian MNCs have come close to reality.
India can change price performance levels due to rapid advances in technology, leading to more affordability and universal aspirations.
This can have a big impact on the environment and innovations need to be created to mitigate this. Human development is more about less corruption than deployment of resources, as corrupt countries have low level of development.
The dominant themes for India@75 will be market-based solutions, social equity, rule of law, scale, price performance levels and ecological sustainability. Poverty alleviation must proceed within these boundaries, he emphasized.
Imagination, courage, passion, humanity, humility, intellect and luck are needed for success in this venture. Professor CK Prahalad's impassioned talk elicited much appreciation from the audience.
The session on education and health partnerships was addressed by Mr Sam Pitroda, Chairman National Knowledge Commission, and Chairman, CII Indian American Council, Rajat Kumar Gupta, Senior Partner Worldwide, McKinsey and Co. and Chairman, Public Health Foundation of India, B Ramalinga Raju, Founder and Chairman, Satyam Computer Services Ltd, Mr Thomas Abraham, Chairman, Global Organisation of People of Indian Origin, Hemant Patel, President, American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin, and Mr Analjit Singh, Chairman, Max India Group of Companies and Chairman, CII International Council. They outlined their experiences in the social sectors and the lessons arising from them for Indian Americans keen to take part in the sectors.
Mr Sam Pitroda detailed the work of the National Knowledge Commission and its recommendations. He said that the Government of India will spend four times more on education in the 11th Plan than it spent in the 10th Plan.
“Education in India requires new talent and new thinking on models of learning. We can create content on the Net, deliver some content on the Net and change the role of the teacher. It is a huge task but will get done,” he said. NRIs need to engage at the district level and work with the system or through the Indian American Council.
Mr Rajat Gupta spoke about the work of the Pan-IIT group and the private sector involvement for Indian School of Business. He said that public private partnerships were the only way to deliver public goods, where the Government would frame the regulations and the private sector deliver the goods. Mr Gupta also talked about the Public Health Foundation of India that proposes to build the institutional framework for public health training and other initiatives.
Mr Thomas Abraham put forward the requirements of GOPIO for greater involvement of youth diaspora in India, simplification of foreign donor laws, and medical and education summits for NRIs.
Mr Hemant Patel gave an overview of the activities of AAPI in India. It has instituted two pilot projects for training the trainers in Andhra Pradesh and Bihar in one village of each district. More initiatives are planned for further roll-out, he stated.
Mr B Ramalinga Raju outlined the initiatives of Satyam in adopting 180 villages with 100% approach, or providing 100% of water, education, health, and other services.
He also talked about the Emergency Management and Research Institute that has been rolled out in Andhra Pradesh to provide emergency services. It has so far saved thousands of lives and is proposed to be scaled up.
At the concluding session moderated by Ambassador TP Sreenivasan, Mr Vayalar Ravi, Minister of Overseas Indian Affairs, and Mr Nirmal Singh, Secretary, MOIA, addressed the concerns of the audience on various issues including protection of workers overseas, marriage problems, fees for NRI students and others.
Mr Ravi stated that a Council for Promotion of Overseas Indian Employment is being set
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