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When I met Dr Prem Jain for the June issue’s Big Interview at his office in Noida, we discussed many key industry issues. (This interview is our way of commemorating ‘World Environment Day’). Dr Jain candidly spoke about several things including Leed India Vs Griha. But to me, the highpoint was the moment when he shared his vision.
Referring to the famous book on our country’s history, ‘The wonder that was India’, Dr Jain said, “My vision is to see our country reach the pinnacle of glory once again so that we could say ‘The wonder that IS India’. And mind you, the construction and infrastructure industry will have to play a key role if we are to achieve this vision.”
“By when do you think this is possible?” - I asked him. “In the next ten years,” he replied rather nonchalantly. (It is kind of audacious but then small ambitions do not make a great nation).

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We went on to discuss two other similar visions; that of former President Dr Kalam and that of the original management guru Professor CK Prahlad (who expired recently).
“This great vision – Dr Jain explained – does not reflect any individual’s fancy but the entire nation’s aspiration and it will be a culmination of several individual dreams.”
I carried this thought with me. I remembered each one of the big interview that I have done for Construction Week – from Minister Kamal Nath to Atul Punj. Each one of the individual had shared his dreams and ambitions through those interviews. I could very well relate all those dreams and ambitions with the vision mentioned by Dr Jain and I saw his point.
The vision is about India’s growth story. It is about India’s infra story, about India’s economic story, about India’s reforms story, about India’s education story and many more such stories. Importantly, it is about ‘India’s’ story. True, there are constraints but these are masks for innovations. As Professor Prahlad has put it so well in his India@75 vision – ‘If aspirations are higher than resources, you will innovate and thereby change the game... India should focus on the opportunities rather than looking at the constraints.’ I was at a construction summit in New Delhi recently and it was refreshing to hear our Power Minister speak about innovative (and practical) initiatives to tackle some of the major constraints faced by the infrastructure sector.
When legendary mathematician Bertrand Russell met the great cartoonist RK Laxman, he calmly remarked, “You Indians have invented ‘absolutely nothing’.” Before the perturbed Laxman could say anything, Russell added, “And you have managed to change the world with it.” Russell was actually referring to the number ‘Zero’. It’s time to change the world again.

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