Kiran Karnik sketches an optimistic picture of India, but just a layer below, his gentle brushstrokes paint dystopia Kiran Karnik chooses his similes carefully. India’s image is that of a large, lumbering elephant, but it threatens to become a hippo, he says. Aggressive, bad-tempered and slow. Or could it become a gazelle by 2030, agile, peaceful and likable? He seeks answers through his analysis of nine areas shaping India: democracy and politics, security, health, education, economy, demography, society, jobs and livelihoods, and technology.
Why should you care what this public un-intellectual, as he calls himself, says? Well, Karnik led projects that shaped India, including satellite TV education in his two decades at ISRO. He oversaw the UGC’s Countrywide Classroom TV programmes. And then, in the month the terrorists struck the…
