Indian can embrace IT better: Nilekani

NEW DELHI: Infosys co-Chairman Nandan Nilekani feels India can do a lot better with the use of Information Technology as it has a vibrant and growing democracy than its most talked about rival China.

"Technology is extremely powerful as a liberal force in its ability to empower citizens and minimise sway of the state. It would strengthen India's advantage as an open, democratic society and would ensure that information knowledge and services flow unimpeded," says Nilekani in his book 'Imagining India, Ideas for the New Century', which was released yesterday.

Nilekani's China reference though not direct is evident from his frequent use of the world 'open society'. He has quoted Tom Friedman, noted 'The New York Times' columnist and Pulitzer Prize winning author, who says, "I don't think that this century can belong to a country that censors Google." Friedman was replying to a question if he saw China as the emerging superpower of the century.

Nilekani says this speaks "multitudes of how critical information technologies have become to a country's economic strength and how India's particular advantage - its combination of open society and its positive attitudes to IT - can transform our country in the coming years".



"India's potential here to become an open, wired economy, unregulated by any kind of 'intellectual licence permit raj' can be a strength difficult to beat in today's information age," says the best-known global face of Indian IT industry.

But there are conditions, according to Nilekani, to achieve this success rate from the usage of IT.