Alumni Association, IIT Kanpur

Cordially invites you to the

24^th KELKAR ALUMNI LECTURE

by

Mr. Gurcharan Das

(Fmr CEO of Proctor and Gamble, author of India Unbound,
and The Elephant Paradigm, columnist with The Sunday Times)

on

"INDIA'S FUTURE"

Day and Date: Saturday, March 17, 2007
Time: 18:00 hr to 19:30 hr
Venue: Auditorium

Abstract of the talk:

Abstract of the talk: The lecture will cover India's growth story of the past 25 years which saw the rising of GDP (Gross Domestic Product), literacy, productivity and per capita income whereas population growth rate and poverty declined and the middle class exploded. India is now the world's 4th largest economy. We have also witnessed a rise of globally competitive Indian companies: Reliance, Jet Airways, Infosys, Wipro, Ranbaxy, Bharat Forge, Tata Motors, TCS, Bharati, ICICI and HDFC Banks. The reason for this success is India's market-led economy which puts the entrepreneur at centre.

India has a vibrant private space but its public space is lethargic. Poor governance, high subsidies, no money for infrastructure and inefficient government companies are a problem but India is still developing despite the government, because, as the saying goes "the economy grows at night when government is asleep."

This talk will be of special interest to the young people of the audience whose future is India's future. They, more than others should know what world they will be stepping into when they leave IIT Kanpur.

About the speaker:

Gurcharan Das is an author, consultant and intellectual. He is the author of the international bestseller, India Unbound, which has been published in many countries and languages and has been filmed by the BBC. He writes a regular column on Sundays for several Indian newspapers, including Times of India, and occasional guest columns for the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, and Foreign Affairs, Time and Newsweek magazines.

He was CEO of Procter & Gamble India and Vice President, Procter & Gamble Far East between 1985 and 1992, and later Vice President and Managing Director, Procter & Gamble Worldwide (Strategic Planning). Prior to P&G, he was Chairman and Managing Director of Richardson Hindustan Limited from 1981 to 1985, the company where he started as a trainee. In 1995, Mr Das became a full-time writer and columnist.

Gurcharan Das graduated with honors from Harvard University in Philosophy and Politics. He later attended Harvard Business School (where he is now featured in three case studies!).  He has also written a novel, A Fine Family, an anthology of plays titled Three English Plays, and a book of essays called The Elephant Paradigm.

Book Reviews of

INDIA UNBOUND

'Having constructed a comprehensive indictment of India's economic failures, Das is optimistic about the liberalization that has opened the economy in the 1990s . . . Das writes in an engaging style, sprinkling his text, with a well-chosen array of quotations...-Los Angeles Times

'Part memoir, part journalism, part history and part management bible, India Unbound is an insightful guide to a rapidly changing nation in which old cliches about spirituality and poverty are increasingly irrelevant... -New York Times

'This brilliant work in political economy is for all young Indians, especially budding politicians and IAS probationers. It deserves to be translated in all Indian languages so that the common person can become better educated about the policies that they want for their country.' - Narayana Murthy