Book extract: ‘India 2061 – A Look at the Future of India’

As it turned 50 in 2011, the team at Draftfcb-Ulka Group started wondering what the next 50 years would look like. The net result is ‘India 2061: A Look at the Future of India’ published by Cogito Consulting, the brand and marketing consulting division of the Group.

And at the stroke of midnight on India’s 67^th Indian Independence Day, the book will be available for download online, for free.

The book predicts how various sectors in India would look like five decades hence, through articles from 21 Indian thought leaders besides data analysis projecting India in 2061. It has been edited by Draftfcb-Ulka Group's MG Parameswaran and Kinjal Medh.

Here’s an extract from an essay by one of the contributors, BS Nagesh, founder, TRRAIN:

‘The reunion of 2061’: BS Nagesh

With so much happening 50 years down the line, let me visualize the reunion of 2061 that our grandchildren have organized for the family. Me & my wife, in our 100’s with our daughters and son-in-laws in their 70’s with our grandchildren in their 40’s with our great grandchildren in their teens and twenties.

Location is the party hall of our apartment in Mumbai that has been blocked by the family. Our grandchildren had invited bids from various restaurants and fashion & lifestyle stores who have bid to participate. The new twist is that some of our grandchildren cannot come as their semester exams are going on. In order to ensure that we are all together, one of the network companies has won the bid to make the re-union real although some of the family members are few thousand kilometres away.

As soon as we entered our party hall, we were surprised with what we saw, we actually had entered a temple, as our daughters wanted the re-union to start with traditional Puja and lighting of lamp, and they had planned one wick for each family member to light. The store organized an electronic lamp along with the traditional lamp, which can be lighted through an electronic ignition that can be triggered through a click on the mobile. After we lit the lamps, one of our grandsons lit it along with us and actually I saw him standing next to me in the room and his hand came out to light the lamp and at the same time he pressed a 9 button and the wick had caught on fl ame. We prayed together in the temple. We hugged all our family members and greeted them, I missed hugging my grandson, but he was there all the time. Then we decided we would go shopping and buy gifts for each other. The youngsters got into the vehicle and left for the store and we along with our daughters and son-in-laws decided to stay back and go through our family album of 75 years. My elder daughter had already pulled all of them from our cloud-based digital photo studio. We kept going through the pictures and we shortlisted a few of them, so that we could get them printed and go through the same at a later date. I didn’t realize that our shortlist was already mailed to the store who were printing it and customizing the same and sending it to all our family members to put their comments and sign the same. As we were in the hall, our family was working together, a few of them with us, some of them in the car on their tablets and grandson across the ocean. Once they reached thestore, they started shopping for themselves and for us. What was amazing is they showed us the garments and if we liked them, they allowed us to wear the same and see ourselves on the screen in the hall. I was surprised that I could turn around and see myself 360-degree view as if I had actually worn the dress. In fact, the alteration guy in the store virtually measured my trouser length for alteration. All the family members shopped for each one of us with 100% participation. They bought Indian wear for my wife, a tuxedo for me, branded bags for my daughters, footwear for them and belts and watch for my son-in-laws. The shopping was completed in two hours, every one was back into the hall for a 7-course meal. What shocked me was the table layout. Both our teenage great grandchildren were seating next to us and had meal with all of us as if they were physically present. Post the meal, we had games together and some of the screen games were such wherein all of us at diff erent age got our handicaps, so that we at 100+ could compete and play table tennis with our great grandchildren in teens. In fact, my wife and I won two games against kids who were 80 years younger to us.

The celebration ended with a great party with 50 of our close friends from the building, physically present, another 50 of our friends from 15 countries joining us and two of my great grandchildren participating in the party without missing their semester exams.

Welcome 2061.

(Free download of the e-version of the book will go live at midnight on 15 August. It will be available at www.cogitoconsulting.com and http://www.draftfcbulka.in/knowledge/2061-book.)