It was a meeting of two worlds – one bogged down by the sub-prime crisis and the other feeling the brunt of it but optimistic about the opportunities ahead.
Two authors, Thomas Friedman and Nandan Nilekani, have provided a perspective of either side of the economy at a discussion in Bangalore titled "Imagining India in a hot, flat and crowded world". They discussed parallels and differences in the US and Indian economies while sharing their views on the changing scenario in both countries.The greatest worry that troubled Friedman, the well known US journalist and author of various books, including the best-seller "The World is Flat", is whether the US government would be able to pull through the multi-generational problems, including healthcare, pension reforms and energy.
Unless addressed, all these problems could "sink the ship", he said, adding, "What Americans want is nation-building at home." Infosys co-chairman Nilekani said what was worrying in India was "the dissonance in opportunities that India had and political chaos. "If India could not cash on its opportunities in next five years, it could lose the game."
Nilekani said that India could use globalisation to its advantage through its demographic dividend that will come in the next two decades. Agreeing that globalisation had resulted in the sub-prime crisis affecting the world, Friedman said it was also a result of people being disengaged from the basics and fundamentals of savings and delayed gratification.
On the Satyam scam, Nilekani said, "I would hesitate to draw a pattern. We have to demonstrate we are clean, practice ethical corporate governance. We are transparent." Friedman said that financial scams were as old as history and prevalent in other nations as well. "How we respond to it as a society is the differentiator", he opined.