Not content with being a forerunner in the IT revolution, Infosys Technologies co-chairman Nandan Nilekani is now branching out as an author.

Launching his book Imagining India - Ideas for the New Century, Nilekani offers his vision of an "awakened country", saying, "Leaders were ahead of the common people during the time of Independence, but now people are ahead of leaders in their aspirations. People power will drive the change. Like it or not, it will happen..."

Nilekani, who has been chosen by Time magazine as one of the hundred most influential people in the world, pointed out that the country's future rests on economic growth, reform and innovation in all spheres of public life.

"Reforms are fundamentally about providing access to education, healthcare, jobs and the market, and half-done reforms only increase inequality. So reforms should be taken to their logical end," Nilekani said, adding that "Reforms in education and the labour market are needed for creating jobs and opportunities."

He also threw some light on how ideas and attitudes have evolved with the times: "How, despite good intentions and astonishing idealism, our early socialist policies stifled growth and weakened our democracy; how, contrary to received wisdom, India's large and overwhelmingly young population has now become our greatest strength; how information technology is revolutionising not just business but also governance in the everyday life of a vast majority of Indians; and how rapid urbanisation is transforming both our society and our politics." X