Introduction
I owe much gratitude to the governors of the Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Trust for their kindness and generosity in inviting me to deliver the 23rd Nehru Memorial Lecture. I have neither the eminence nor the eloquence of the speakers who have had this privilege in the past. Their decision is based wholly on their affection for me and I am grateful for it.
It is not easy to speak about a colossus like Nehru, especially in a short lecture such as this. His influence has permeated every strand of developmental thought in the five decades of India's independence. Undoubtedly, the generations to come will continue to benefit from his profound thought and philosophy.
The history of independent India is laced with the myriad initiatives that he launched towards solving the problem of poverty, among the other issues that he addressed. His pet theme was the creation of the temples of modern India -- the universities, the dams and the factories that comprised the foundation for the industrial infrastructure and the associated pool of knowledge so essential to any modern nation-state. He knew that this was the only way of fulfilling Mahatma Gandhi's dream of wiping the tears of every poor man and woman in the country.
I recall a few words from his famous Tryst With Destiny speech, delivered on the eve of the attainment of Independence, where he said: "A moment comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance." What a great sentence! It held true that day and holds good even today, when India is poised to become a significant player in the global hi-tech industry. To me, the hi-tech enterprises that have sprung up in great numbers in the country are, indeed, the temples and shrines of the new India. I will talk about the importance of this phenomenon and also briefly touch upon what India needs to do keep the momentum going.
While many tomes have been written about Nehru as a politician, a statesman and an administrator, very little is written about his belief that knowledge and scholarship would play a big role in the emancipation of the subjects of India. I am very glad to highlight three policy decisions that he took when he assumed the prime ministership of India.
First, he created several institutes of higher learning including the IITs, the IIMs, the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre and the All Indian Institute Of Medical Sciences. Today, over 75 per cent of India's contribution to the entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley, to academics in leading institutions across the globe and to the pool of CEOs in the US comes from the IITs. The backbone of engineering and managerial talent in India comes from this pool. Our current Prime Minister Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee's dream, of making India a significant player in the global software industry, would not have been possible without Nehru's vision.
Second, he insisted that there be no import duties on books, journals and any knowledge instruments, even in the context of an otherwise high-duty, protectionist mindset.
Third, even in the era of scarce foreign exchange in the fifties and the sixties, he ensured that every Indian who could afford to study abroad was given the required foreign currency. I can imagine the intense opposition he would have faced from the jingoistic and less enlightened crowd, having come out of a colonial regime just then. These are truly the acts of a firm believer in an open flow of ideas from the best sources in the world. Nehru truly symbolised what Andrew Jackson said: "One man with courage makes a majority."
Do we need hi-tech enterprises in India?
Product exports or services exports?
The market opportunity
What should we do to become a successful nation in IT?
Conclusion
The Rediff Specials
Do tell us what you think of this speech
