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The Rediff Business Special/Mukesh Ambani

Way to the Top: Making India a land of architects, not masons

I have a vision of India 2020. A vision of making India an economic superpower is dear to all our hearts. I would like to present my thoughts on how that vision can be transformed into a mission. How that dream can become a reality.

As I do so, I will seek to identify the fundamental challenges before the world as we enter the new millennium.

The years ahead

It is of paramount importance that one simple idea should sink deep into our minds. The years ahead will be far more different from the world we know today.

We need to look too far in the future. In fact, the world in the first half of the next century will bear little resemblance to the world in which we are living now. It will be somewhat easy for us to visualise these changes, if we recall how the world today is totally different from what it was 50 years ago.

The transformation that has taken place in last 50 years is like a leap of a millennium. It has been an unprecedented human experience. The next millennium and especially the next 50 years would compress, within a very short time-frame, experiences of several millennia.

There are many convergent forces coming together to create this powerful transformation. At the epicentre is a technology revolution unmatched in all of history in its power to remake ourselves, our institutions and the world.

Refashioning life on earth

Until now, our attention is focussed on technological progress in computers and telecommunications. However, in the area of bio-technology, life sciences and genetic engineering, scientists are beginning to reorganise life at the genetic level. The new tools of biology are opening up opportunities of refashioning life on earth.

The information technology revolution and progress in life sciences are beginning to fuse into a single technological force. This brings with it a new resource base, a new set of transforming technologies, new forms commercial protection to spur commerce, a global trading market, a new supporting sociology and a new communication tool to organise and manage economic activity at all levels.

The marriage of computers and genes forever alters our reality at the deepest levels of human experience. This revolution will affect every aspect of our lives -- the way we eat, the way we marry, the way we have our babies, the way our children are raised and educated, the way we work, the way we engage in politics, the way we express our faith, the way we perceive the world around us and our place in it.

All our individual and shared realities will be deeply touched by new technologies -- undoubtedly this 'ultimate technology frontier' will usher in one of the greatest transformations in world history.

Implications of corporate proliferation

At the economic level, similar transformations are taking place. Corporate re-structuring is galloping to unprecedented levels. In many sectors, this consolidation is leading to global dominance by a few companies on an unprecedented scale.

Few companies already control 40-70 per cent of global markets in automobiles, aerospace, consumer durables, oil and steel. Out of the 100 largest economies -- countries or companies -- 51 are corporations. Imagine that a combination of two companies -- General Motors and Ford -- is bigger than the entire India in economic output.

Dramatic technological and economic changes give rise to greater insecurity in society. This new technological age is promoting a society without barriers of caste, class, citizenship, race or religion. Societies have the unique opportunity to liberate themselves from the shackles of the past and create egalitarian social orders. This is at a time when huge disparities persist in the world across countries. (Continued)

Inequity everywhere

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