It is highly unlikely to hear a corporate leader like TV Mohandas Pai, director (HR and E&R), Infosys, say that as a youngster, his role models included smuggler Haji Mastan.
Pai was delivering a lecture on “India at 2030” organized by the Institute for Social and Economic Change at Central College on Saturday.
“Smugglers like Haji Mastan were our heroes because they were rich. When I had just graduated in 1979, there were no jobs, no money, nothing. The angst of my generation is best captured in the film Deewar, where Amitabh Bachchan essayed the role of the angry young man. No one had predicted what India would be like by 2010,” said Pai.
He is optimistic about the future prospects of India, but laid emphasis on the need to focus on the country’s education system. “We have destroyed education in India. Higher education is failing because we are unable to decide between quality and quantity. The biggest tragedy is being played out in India, where graduates are on the streets, with no marketable skills,” Pai added.
According to Pai, the key to India’s growth is to increase enrollment in colleges from the existing 12.5% to 30%. “Liberalise education, give freedom to start institutions. Let foreign universities come to India, at least 200 or 300 of the best should be allowed to establish centres here,” he said.
While highlighting India’s advantage in terms of a younger population, Pai stated, “India is in a sweet spot as far as demographic transition is concerned. We will have the highest number of young people by 2050.”
According to Pai, more corporates will look at investing in education.
On governance issues, Pai asserted that India should do away with the subsidy regime.
“India’s greatest challenge is poverty. We need to revamp the subsidy regime. There are transmission losses in subsidies, money doesn’t often reach the poor and is lost to middlemen. We should look at giving the women of each BPL household Rs2,000 in cash through a direct bank transfer. Brazil has tried it and succeeded,” he elaborated.
