Social angle

Plausible Impossibility

By Brij ⋅ December 29, 2005 ⋅  Email This Post ⋅  Print This Post ⋅ Post a comment

According to Narayan Murthy “plausible impossibility is better than convincing possibility”, when it comes to rooting out the rampant corruption in India.

Speaking at the technology institute here in Bangalore he quoted some depressing numbers: nearly 1% of the GDP circulates as bribes. Gini Index, a measurement of income inequality rose from 30 to 38 during the 90s. 260 million people stayed below the poverty line and 357 million survived on one dollar a day.

While emphasizing that the new breed of businessmen are not shy from speaking out the truth he highlighted few positives for India as well - thriving democracy, secularism and the power of the youth.

Much as I admire Mr Murthy for his style and vision there are few things I wish people like him did more. Which is using their money to drive the change they want to see in the world. Setting up a venture fund which will invest in next generation start-ups. Start-ups which are part NGOs and part computer science department and have a clear purpose to “change the world” by tools which will level the existing knowledge asymmetry in the society. We need smart mob technique to overcome jaded approach to deal with social issues. That’s where Mr Murthy should be investing his time and money.

Dedicated venture fund which helps the creation of tools which exploits mobility, media and technology to take knowledge away from those who have it and give it to those who never had this before ! There are good examples of such funds - Omidyar Network is definitely leading the way there. India still doesn’t have anything remotely close to this fund.