Nandan Nilekani to host new series on CNBC-TV18

Mumbai: Infosys co founder and CEO Nandan Nilekani is following on his bestselling book, Imagining India with an on-air weekly series to be telecast on CNBC-TV18.

The weekly series, anchored jointly by Nilekani and CNBC-TV18's executive editor, Shireen Bhan, has been designed to bring together strategic minds in the country to deliberate and debate on the key enablers for 21st century India,  to tackle the unfulfilled potential within the country.

Commencing 13 June, the show will have Nilekani facilitating a debate among a select panel, who will discuss issues ranging from Indian infrastructure to globalisation and India, the Indian demographic dividend to primary education and more.

Despite progress in some areas since liberalisation, which has been accompanied by substantial improvement in economic and human development indicators, India is yet to achieve its full potential since inbuilt impediments and bottlenecks have impeded faster inclusive growth and prosperity.

The new series aims to mobilise debate to facilitate a complete environmental overhaul within the country, ranging from its social services and infrastructure to a comprehensive and encompassing policy framework to improve implementation capabilities, in view of the country's exisitng impressive credentials as a future econmoic powerhouse due to a strong and fast growing domestic demand-led economy, a vibrant democratic culture and a reasonably well entrenched institutional framework.

The Imagining India panel includes business professionals, venture capitalists, economists, writers and sociologists, including, Adi Godrej, chairman, Godrej Group; Sanjeev Sanyal, author, The Indian Renaissance: India's Rise after a Thousand Years of Decline; Vinayak Chaterjee , chairman, Feedback Ventures; Shobhana Bhartia, chairperson, HT Media; Madhav Chavan, founder, Pratham, James Tooley, professor of education policy, Newcastle University; Gautam Thapar, chairman, Avantha Group; Arun Maira, chairman, Boston Consulting Group; Raman Roy, CEO, Quattr; Jaideep Sahni, screnplay writer, Chak De India and Khosla Ka Ghosla, Roopa Purshottam, chief economist and strategist, Future Group and; Dipankar Gupta, sociologist and author.

"We hope that this series will be an important reference point for policy makers and all stakeholders in the journey to collectively realise India's dream of a successful and stable future,'' says Neel Chowdhury, VP marketing, CNBC-TV18 and CNBC AWAAZ.

The new show will be aired on Saturdays at 10:00 PM, with a repeat telecast on Sundays 7:00 PM