Prembabu Sharma
Wisdom Tree and The Public Diplomacy Division, Ministry of External Affairs comes together this Independence Day to celebrate the spirit of India ’s Innovation. ‘Remember that dark brown starved man bending under a scorching sun, scratching a little plot of land to eke out a living. Anything you do, do for his benefit’.
‘The India Idea’, edited by LK Sharma and with Photo Research & Editing by Shobit Arya has contributions by some of the best minds in the country, and beautifully captures both–the two ends of India’s innovation spectrum.
The flagship book of the season by Wisdom Tree, it is a stunningly produced coffee table volume with contributions by legendary scientists and technocrats including M S Swaminathan ,considered the father of India’s green revolution, Sam Pitroda who has pioneered the IT revolution, R A Mashelkar who challenged the frontiers of science as head of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, K Kasturirangan who has taken Indians to the space age, Anil Kakodkar who demonstrated the peaceful uses of nuclear energy, and R Gopalakrishnan who heads one of India’s largest business houses Tata Sons as its Executive Director.
Other authors who have contributed include eminent biophysicist and CSIR Director General Samir K Brahmachari, renowned defence scientist V K Saraswat, and global strategy expert Anil K Gupta. The book also contains graphic accounts of some other superb innovations like Jaipur Foot, Narayana Hrudalaya, Solar Sisters, and others.
The book is being released at a glittering evening on 11 August in the presence of various personalities including Minister of State for Science & Technology Ashwani Kumar.
According to Shobit Arya,, Publisher of Wisdom Tree, “ India is a country of a billion brilliant minds—a nation of reverberating and intelligent ideas. ‘The India Idea’ is being recognized world over for its innovativeness and application and this book beautifully captures all that and more.”
The India Idea is an idea which may not always find its origin in a sophisticated lab or a state-of-the-art industrial R&D centre; it is an idea which is as unique as the country's identity, ethos and culture; an idea which is beyond time and space but whose time has definitely come.
This one-of-its-kind book presents the distinctive India of today in all its flavour and fervour: the thought provoking contributions by legendary scientists, technocrats, management experts and practitioners on the one hand and heart-warning stories about inclusive grassroots as well as cutting-edge innovations on the other.