8220

The base of the pyramid needs to be engaged: India can8217t afford to neglect its rural population8221JULY 2008 execdigital.co.ukels that will raise the living standards of the 72 percent that live in villages. 8220If we succeed our kids will bless us: if we fail they will never forgive us,8221 said Pitroda, and Prof Prabhu agrees wholeheartedly. 8220The base of the pyr-amid needs to be engaged: India can8217t afford to neglect its rural population: and it8217s a massive market that can be reached by doing imaginative things, sometimes through technology as Airtel has done, sometimes through imaginative ways of doing busi-ness and collaboration with regional governments and NGOs. There8217s a constellation of ways to transform the rural economy from microfinance for to any company. But also because innovation is what people call 8216sticky8217 knowledge, not easy to transfer across boundaries. Over the last five years that has changed and we have seen an incredible amount of innovative activity in far flung markets. Even the largest companies can no longer contain all the ideas they need to produce new products for the future.8221The base of
T
he pyramI
dIndia has about 1.7 billion people, half of them under 34 and 30 percent of them under 15. Education will have to cope with this and Sam Pitroda is now a key figure in the search for new mod-
Page 1Page 2Page 3Page 4Page 5Page 6Page 7Page 8Page 9Page 10Page 11Page 12Page 13Page 14Page 15Page 16Page 17Page 18Page 19Page 20Page 21Page 22Page 23Page 24Page 25Page 26Page 27Page 28Page 29Page 30Page 31Page 32Page 33Page 34Page 35Page 36Page 37Page 38Page 39Page 40Page 41Page 42Page 43Page 44Page 45Page 46Page 47Page 48Page 49Page 50Page 51Page 52Page 53Page 54Page 55Page 56Page 57Page 58Page 59Page 60Page 61Page 62Page 63Page 64Page 65Page 66Page 67Page 68Page 69Page 70Page 71Page 72Page 73Page 74Page 75Page 76Page 77Page 78Page 79Page 80Page 81Page 82Page 83Page 84Page 85Page 86Page 87Page 88Page 89Page 90Page 91Page 92Page 93Page 94Page 95Page 96Page 97Page 98Page 99Page 100Page 101Page 102Page 103Page 104Page 105Page 106Page 107Page 108Page 109Page 110Page 111Page 112Page 113Page 114Page 115Page 116Page 117Page 118Page 119Page 120Page 121Page 122Page 123Page 124Page 125Page 126Page 127Page 128Page 129Page 130Page 131Page 132Page 133Page 134Page 135Page 136Page 137Page 138Page 139Page 140Page 141Page 142Page 143Page 144Page 145Page 146Page 147Page 148Page 149Page 150Page 151Page 152Page 153Page 154Page 155Page 156Page 157Page 158Page 159Page 160Page 161Page 162Page 163Page 164Page 165Page 166Page 167Page 168Page 169Page 170Page 171Page 172Page 173Page 174Page 175Page 176Page 177Page 178Page 179Page 180Page 181Page 182Page 183Page 184Page 185Page 186Page 187Page 188Page 189Page 190Page 191Page 192Page 193Page 194Page 195Page 196Page 197Page 198Page 199Page 200Page 201Page 202Page 203Page 204Page 205Page 206Page 207Page 208Page 209Page 210Page 211Page 212Page 213Page 214Page 215Page 216Page 217Page 218Page 219Page 220Page 221Page 222Page 223Page 224Page 225Page 226Page 227Page 228Page 229Page 230Page 231Page 232Page 233Page 234Page 235Page 236Page 237Page 238Page 239Page 240Page 241Page 242Page 243Page 244Page 245Page 246Page 247Page 248Page 249Page 250Page 251Page 252Page 253Page 254Page 255Page 256Page 257Page 258Page 259Page 260Page 261Page 262Page 263Page 264Page 265Page 266Page 267Page 268Page 269Page 270Page 271Page 272Page 273Page 274Page 275Page 276Page 277Page 278Page 279Page 280Page 281Page 282Page 283Page 284Page 285Page 286Page 287Page 288Page 289Page 290Page 291Page 292Page 293Page 294Page 295Page 296Page 297Page 298Page 299Page 300Page 301Page 302 Produced by PageSuite