India is a land of a billion people. Since people dream, I always say, “India is a land of a billion dreamers”. Since dreams take a lot of effort to turn into realities, it is not surprising that many of these dreams go unrealized. While lack of persistence is a cause for non-realization, a large portion of this is also due to the lack of sensing the right opportunities. Now, this is true in other parts of the world too, albeit at different proportions.
Sensing opportunities or creating them, depending on whichever school you believe in, require some skills. One of the common antecedents to sensing opportunities, as validated by several researchers, is access to information. Several decades back, information asymmetry was used by individuals to gain advantages. But, in recent times, with the democratization of information, more individuals have access to most information. Unfortunately, this has also resulted in people complaining about information overload, reduced attention, etc. In spite of all the struggles, access to information and the ability to make sense of information, remain critical factors in individuals’ seeing opportunities. I agree there are other factors involved too, but “access to information” seems to be fundamental. So, if you are in India and you are looking for some information that can trigger your ability to see opportunities, here is a book that contains a wealth of useful insights, some information, and pointers to various sources of further information: The book “Bridgital Nation – Solving Technology’s People Problem” by N Chandrasekaran and Roopa Purushothaman. While much of the challenges identified are widely known, the authors approach to potential solutioning is creative. 
I enjoyed the book and have already recommended it to many of my students, especially in India. It takes a very different view to seeing some of the challenges facing India. I particularly liked two. First, the challenge of delivering quality healthcare to a billion Indians. Second, the challenge of turning our demography into an dividend rather than a liability.
Healthcare: India is a paradox when it comes healthcare. While India is becoming a global destination for medical tourism, she struggles with delivering basic domestic healthcare services. Most will agree that the domestic healthcare system, though well designed, is broken. People still need to be treated when they are sick, and taught how to be healthy. Big challenge: access.
Education: India churns out more degree holders than many other countries. Yet, unemployment is rampant. Everyone seems to agree that graduates (bachelor to doctoral levels) are unable to deliver on the job. Corporate recruiters almost run a full fledged university within their enterprises, to train recruited graduates on skills required for hands-on work. People need to be skilled and need jobs. Big challenge: jobs.
How can we bridge these gaps in the economy? The authors argue for greater use of technology and digitization to solve these challenges. Instead of the conventional solution to fixing the knowledge-doing gap, their approach to digitally enable semi-skilled workers is novel. While they highlight many of India’s challenges using largescale datasets, they also showcase specific case studies to illustrate how digitally enabled skilled individuals can bring out effective change. These stories are great examples, even if they are exceptions, of what the possibilities are for a digitally enabled and skilled India. If the macro-level data does not inspire you, the many stories in the book should.
Entrepreneurs interested in India as a market, must read this book. They must mark out the many “gaps” that exist in our education and healthcare sectors (or any other sector that interests them). They should pick specific a “gap” that inspires them. They should experiment solving it. Digitalization has made experimentation inexpensive and rapid. Entrepreneurs have a growing support infrastructure (incubators, corporate accelerators, labs, makerspaces, etc) to pursue such experimentation. India’s entrepreneurship ecosystem is growing. Individuals must tap into their entrepreneurial talents, make use of the support available, and bring about change. Venturing is a great way to make productive change happen.
Reference: Chandrasekaran, N., & Purushothaman, R. (2019). Bridgital Nation: Solving Technology’s People Problem. New Delhi, India: Penguin Random House India Private Limited.
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