Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani is a man of many parts. An “accidental entrepreneur”, a determined philanthropist, and, as is clear in his new book Imagining India, a deep thinker about policy. He’s convinced he needs to get new ideas out there, and he told The Sunday Express what some of them are.

On his book:

It’s about India, and ideas... I wouldn’t have written it if it didn’t have something nobody has previously said in each chapter. I’m a value-for-money guy. This book is value for money — and for your time in reading it. It would have to be, or it wouldn’t be value for my time in writing it. I would have watched Rock On instead.

On philanthropy in India:

The Tatas, the Birlas — Mahim causeway in Bombay was built by Lady Jeejeebhoy in the 19th century. That stopped during the socialist era — no new wealth was being created, so who’d give it away? People don’t do that with wealth they inherit, because they don’t think it’s theirs to give away. Now, we need some serious philanthropy to start, not the little driblets we see. Society will let you make money only as long as it thinks you are valuable. You don’t contribute, society will take your right to make money away. Look at the US, a hundred years ago. They had robust capitalism. Carnegie, Mellon, Morgan — these men were dadas. But they gave it all away. So capitalism was made palatable, and survived.

... contd.