Imagining India As A Global Power

This book provides a comprehensive understanding of the various dimensions of India’s international positioning and foreign relations. Already a dominant player in South Asian politics, India has gained a strong footing in the international pecking order with the signing of the Indo-US nuclear agreement and significant support for its claim for a permanent seat in the Security Council. The chapters presented here look at myriad aspects — India’s relations with its neighbours and global powers farther afield including the US, the European Union, Russia and China; India’s policies, influences and strengths; developments in economy, knowledge and innovation amid evolving global realities as well as geostrategic equations and alliances; its present and future plans vis-à-vis its standing in the world; and how international politics is likely to emerge in the coming years. The volume will be useful to academics, researchers and students of politics and international relations as also to policy practitioners and those in media interested in Indian affairs, foreign policy and international relations.

A visionary look at the evolution and future of India In this momentous book, Nandan Nilekani traces the central ideas that shaped India's past and present and asks the key question of the future: How will India as a global power avoid the mistakes of earlier development models? As a co-founder of Infosys, a global leader in information technology, Nilekani has actively participated in the company's rise during the past twenty-seven years. In Imagining India, he uses his global experience and understanding to discuss the future of India and its role as a global citizen and emerging economic giant. Nilekani engages with India's particular obstacles and opportunities, charting a new way forward for the young nation.

The economic liberalization of India, changes in global structures, and the rapid emergence of India on the global landscape have been accompanied by the dramatic rise in popular, public, and elite discourses that offer the promise to imagine India. Written mostly in the future tense, these discourses conceive of India through specific frames of global change and simultaneously offer prescriptive suggestions for the pathways to fulfilling the vision. Both as summary accounts of the shifts taking place in India and in the relationships of India with other global actors as well as roadmaps for the immediate and longer term directions for India, these discourses offer meaningful entry points into elite imaginations of India. Engaging these imaginations creates a framework for understanding the tropes that are mobilized in support of specific policy formulations in economic, political, cultural, and social spheres. Connecting meanings within networks of power and structure help make sense of the symbolic articulations of India within material relationships.

Since The Early 1990S, India Has Witnessed Great Social, Political And Cultural Change. As The World&Rsquo;S Largest Democracy, Its Most Diverse Nation And One Of Its Fastest Growing Economies, India Is Now, Sixty Years After Independence, Universally Regarded As An Emerging Superpower. In This Sweeping And Comprehensive Book, One Of The Country&Rsquo;S Finest And Most Dynamic Minds Examines The Central Ideas That Have Shaped Modern India, And Offers An Original Perspective On Our Past, Present And Future. &Nbsp; Infosys Co-Founder Nandan Nilekani, Who Has Been A Key Player In India&Rsquo;S Growth Story, Points Out That The Country&Rsquo;S Future Rests On More Than Simply Economic Growth; It Also Depends On Reform And Innovation In All Sectors Of Public Life. Looking Closely At India&Rsquo;S Recent History, He Examines The Ideas And Attitudes That Evolved With The Times And Contributed To The Country&Rsquo;S Progress, As Well As Those That Kept It Shackled To Old, Unproductive And Fundamentally Undemocratic Ways. He Discusses How India&Rsquo;S Early Socialist Policies, Despite Good Intentions And Astonishing Idealism, Stifled Growth And Weakened Democracy; How, Contrary To Received Wisdom, The Country&Rsquo;S Large And Overwhelmingly Young Population Has Now Become Its Greatest Strength; How Information Technology Is Revolutionizing Not Just Business But Also Governance In The Everyday Life Of A Vast Majority Of Indians; And How Rapid Urbanization Is Transforming Both Society And Politics. Nilekani Also Gets To The Heart Of Charged Debates About Caste Politics, Labour Reform, Infrastructure, Higher Education, The English Language In India And The Role Of The State In A Globalized World Where The Wealth Of Big Corporations Exceeds That Of Some Nations. And As He Does This, He Asks The Key Questions Of The Future: How Will India As A Global Power Avoid The Mistakes Of Earlier Development Models? Will Further Access To The Open Market Continue To Stimulate Such Extraordinary Growth? And How Will This Growth Affect&Mdash;And Be Shaped By&Mdash;The Country&Rsquo;S Young People? India Is In The Middle Of A Huge Transformational Process, Nilekani Argues, And Only A Safety Net Of Ideas&Mdash;From Genuinely Inclusive Democracy To Social Security, From Public Health To Sustainable Energy&Mdash;Can Transcend Political Agendas And Safeguard The Country&Rsquo;S Future.

Reimagining India brings together leading thinkers from around the world to explore the challenges and opportunities faced by one of the most important and least understood nations on earth. India’s abundance of life—vibrant, chaotic, and tumultuous—has long been its foremost asset. The nation’s rising economy and burgeoning middle class have earned India a place alongside China as one of the world’s two indispensable emerging markets. At the same time, India’s tech-savvy entrepreneurs and rapidly globalizing firms are upending key sectors of the world econ­omy. But what is India’s true potential? And what can be done to unlock it? McKinsey & Company has pulled in wisdom from many corners—social and cultural as well as eco­nomic and political—to launch a feisty debate about the future of Asia’s “other superpower.” Reimagining India features an all-star cast of contributors, including CNN’s Fareed Zakaria; Mukesh Ambani, CEO of India’s largest private conglomerate; Microsoft founder Bill Gates; Google chairman Eric Schmidt; Harvard Business School dean Nitin Nohria; award-winning authors Suketu Mehta (Maximum City), Edward Luce (In Spite of the Gods), and Patrick French (India: A Portrait); Nandan Nilekani, Infosys cofounder and chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India; and a host of other leading executives, entrepreneurs, economists, foreign policy experts, jour­nalists, historians, and cultural luminaries. These essays explore topics like the strengths and weaknesses of India’s political system, growth prospects for India’s economy, the competitiveness of Indian firms, India’s rising international profile, and the rapid evolution of India’s culture. Over the next decade India has the opportunity to show the rest of the develop­ing world how open, democratic societies can achieve high growth and shared prosperity. Contributors offer creative strategies for seizing that opportunity. But they also offer a frank assessment of the risks that India’s social and political fractures will instead thwart progress, condemning hundreds of millions of people to enduring poverty. Reimagining India is a critical resource for read­ers seeking to understand how this vast and vital nation is changing—and how it promises to change the world around us.

A visionary look at the evolution and future of India In this momentous book, Nandan Nilekani traces the central ideas that shaped India's past and present and asks the key question of the future: How will India as a global power avoid the mistakes of earlier development models? As a co-founder of Infosys, a global leader in information technology, Nilekani has actively participated in the company's rise during the past twenty-seven years. In "Imagining India," he uses his global experience and understanding to discuss the future of India and its role as a global citizen and emerging economic giant. Nilekani engages with India's particular obstacles and opportunities, charting a new way forward for the young nation.

This book provides a comprehensive understanding of the various dimensions of India’s international positioning and foreign relations. Already a dominant player in South Asian politics, India has gained a strong footing in the international pecking order with the signing of the Indo-US nuclear agreement and significant support for its claim for a permanent seat in the Security Council. The chapters presented here look at myriad aspects — India’s relations with its neighbours and global powers farther afield including the US, the European Union, Russia and China; India’s policies, influences and strengths; developments in economy, knowledge and innovation amid evolving global realities as well as geostrategic equations and alliances; its present and future plans vis-à-vis its standing in the world; and how international politics is likely to emerge in the coming years. The volume will be useful to academics, researchers and students of politics and international relations as also to policy practitioners and those in media interested in Indian affairs, foreign policy and international relations.

This volume explores India's role in the global governance architecture post-Cold War. It shows how, with a rise in India's capabilities, there is an expectation from its external interlocutors that New Delhi ought to play a larger global role. As Indian policymakers re-define their engagements in the global policy matrix, the essays in the volume analyse: India's role as a challenger and a stakeholder in world politics; its uneasy relationship with Western liberal democracies; and its role in shaping new structures of global governance. The volume focuses on a host of critical issues including nuclear policy, climate action politics, India's bid for a permanent seat at the UN Security Council, humanitarian interventions, trade governance, democracy promotion, India's engagement with other emerging powers in platforms such as the BRICS, the changing dynamics with its neighbours, and maritime governance. A timely reimagining of global politics, this book will be of great interest to scholars and researchers of politics and international relations, climate change, military and strategic studies, economics, and South Asian studies.