Demographic dividend

Sometime around July-August in the late 90s ,as they do every year, engineering colleges in Bangalore were churning out new graduates, fresh with hope and enthusiasm to venture out into the world of endless possibilities and boundless ambition. Campus interviews and job fairs were to be on the agenda for the next few months where classmates clustered around each other, comparing notes and debating testing methods and interviewing strategies.

If you were a fresh engineering graduate around this time, one of the much hyped tests had to have been the one at Infosys, where all of Bangalore wanted to work. Everyone had heard about the tech industry miracle called Infosys, its work ethics, the founder Narayana Murthy and his co-founders. The roadside chaatwala knew all about Sudha Murthy and how this couple began on meagre means to establish this global technological revolution which went on to be the first Indian company to be listed in Nasdaq in 1999. A few of my classmates did very well at Infosys and the rest of us were just proud of this fact. The tests in order to make it through was rumoured to be as tough as any Engineering semester exam could have been or even worse. And there were multiple rounds of tests and interviews, a grueling saga, bound to test the nerves of even a man of steel. But it was all worth it, after all, who has not heard of the Infosys campus in Bangalore. Let me quote one article from BBC which goes

"It is a self-contained city for its 20,000 workers, and contains shops, restaurants, a health club, a basketball court and even a golf course."

I happened to watch this interview with Nandan Nilekani on Jon Stewart recently. What humility and what a simpleton! Its no wonder these stalwarts were able to project India into the global limelight. We need such stellar powers to show the rest of the world what can be done with vision, perseverance and diligence. And now he says our population(1 billion plus) is an asset, NOT a liability. What a message sirjee!