Exclusive | Need to think through India 2061: MG Parameswaran

Want to know how India would have progressed in the year 2061? Read ‘India 2061- A Look at the Future of India’, a book to be launched tomorrow on 15th August by Draftfcb Ulka. The book is a sincere attempt to predict how the various sectors in India would look like around 50 years from now. It is being launched by the agency’s brand and marketing consulting division Cogito Consulting.

On the eve of the book launch, Adgully spoke to Dr M.G. Parameswaran, Executive Director & CEO – Mumbai Group and Cogito Consulting about the thought process and the journey from conceptualizing to the actual book. M.G is the Editor of the book.

The following is the excerpt of the brief conversation.

Adgully: How does the book India 2061 align in with Draftfcb Ulka’s journey?

Dr MG. Parameswaran: The genesis of this book was the mark of the milestone year 2011 when Draftfcb’s Indian arm, Ulka Advertising completed 50 years. To celebrate this occasion, the consulting team – Cogito Consulting and the analytics team – Asterii Analytics set on a journey to quantitatively forecast India’s future in areas like Population, Life Expectancy, Economy, Education, Infrastructure, Automobiles, Electricity, Internet, Media etc. The book aptly titled – ‘India 2061’ is a sincere attempt to predict how various sectors in India would look like 50 years from today, when our parent agency Ulka would celebrate its 100th birthday.

The second section of the book encompasses the quantitative data projection of various sectors in India in the year 2061.

AG: What was the idea behind the book and the selection of personalities who have given their views on India 2061?

MG: We requested 21 thought leaders from various industries to take valuable time to share with us what they see are the challenges India will face as it gets ready to join the league of developed nations. The thought was to cover as many sectors as possible with the help of these thought leaders. These thought leaders have covered sectors like Economy, Politics, I.T. Automotive, Power, Water, Sports, Entertainment, Retail, Education, Healthcare, Telecom, etc.

The guest writers featured in the book include Ajit Balakrishnan, Dr. Ajit Ranade, Anil Sardana, Ashish Chauhan, Ayaz Memon, B.S.Nagesh, Dileep Ranjekar, Dinesh Kanabar, Dorab Sopariwala, Geet Sethi, Hasit Joshipura, Malini V Shankar, Pavan Sukhdev, Punit Goenka, Ravi Kant, R S Sodhi, S. Ramadorai, Sanjeev Aga, Shiv Visvanathan, Shivakumar and Thomas Mathew T.

The book features thought provoking articles which in many ways drive home the point – what we do today will have a significant impact in 2061. We see this book as our humble submission to the thinking that needs to be done if we have to make the India 2061 dreams a reality.

AG: When was the idea conceptualized and how did it progress from there on. How long did the effort take?

MG: The year 2011, our agency Ulka Advertising celebrated its 50th Anniversary. In a continuation of that, in the year 2012 we got the consulting team – Cogito Consulting and the analytics team – Asterii Analytics set on a journey to quantitatively forecast India’s future when Ulka would be celebrating its Centenary: The quantitative compilation of India’s future –‘The India 2061 Report’ was released in 2012 as a white paper. We thought that in 2013 we should follow up on that report and add some views from thought leaders to embellish, question and discuss the numbers presented in the 2061 report. Work on this started six months ago. And it is fortuitous that we managed to get the book out in time for the Independence Day.

AG: How challenging was coming out with the book?

MG: We knew that the content depended on the content providers, and we did not want to compromise on the kind of people we needed to give us inputs. The challenge was to get the inputs, given the time pressures on these very senior leaders. So getting all the articles together took a lot longer than we thought. And we had resolved that we will do the book if and only if we had 20 articles. In the final count, we got to 21. It is to their credit that each and every one gave us their valuable time and made the book what it is today. I should admit a few did back out since they had severe time pressures.

AG: Through this book, do you intend to send some kind of a message about the agency present or future positioning & status?

MG: Our agency is founded on the belief that advertising is not just about pretty pictures and funny ads. It is about partnering clients in their long term journey of brand building. Towards this effort the agency and its various arms do a lot of studies to understand the changing Indian consumer. India 2061 is just a futuristic exploration we indulged in. Importantly we think this should be seen as our contribution to the debate that is raging around the country on the growth direction that we should adopt. The year 2061 may be very far away, but the foundation stones need to be laid today. We do hope our report starts a healthy debate on the challenges ahead.