India@75 is a path breaking initiative. It envisions how India should be in her 75th year of independence and seeks to bring together all stakeholders including the industry, government, institutions, community groups and individuals to translate the vision into a reality.

Prof C.K.Prahalad has been the inspiration behind India@75. While commemorating the 60th year of India,s independence, on 23 Sep 2007 during the Incredible India@60 commemoration at New York he articulated the idea of holistic three dimensional development of India to acquire enough economic strength, technological vitality and moral leadership by 75 years of independence. CII adopted his vision on 8 May 2008.

Visioning Exercise

CII took India@75 as a grassroots initiative and converted it into a vision for our country shared by people from all geographies and all walks of life. A participatory approach to visioning was kicked off under the leadership of CII in partnership with the Boston Consulting Group and Young Indians (Yi). This was done through:-

• Sensitization sessions led by Prof. Prahalad across 7 metros involving interactions with Chief Ministers, leaders of political parties, IAS leadership, CII leadership and students;
• 123 workshops and 984 interviews conductions across the country covering the voices of approximately 5500 people;
• Vision documents for 17 states across India; exercise completed for 21 states
• District Development Plans for 18 districts in Karnataka, AP, Kerala, TN and MP

Vision Document

Visioning exercise helped transform India@75 into the "People's Agenda". The core message was loud and clear. Indians want to imagine a new India; and not just a minor tweaking of the India they see around them. They want an India that is modern, socially equitable, fair and transparent. They want an India full of opportunities. They want to dream and want to work hard to make it a reality.

Ten broad areas were clubbed into following seven themes of the Vision Document

• Education and Skills
• Technology and Innovation
• Agriculture and Food Security
• Business and Economy
• Urbanization and Environmental Sustainability
• Arts, Literature and Sport
• Moral Leadership, Governance and Public Administration

Under each theme, 4-5 statements have emerged as the elements of a vision. These statements represent the collective "Voice of India". True to the spirit of India@75, these statements capture the aspirations which exceed present level of resources and require innovation and development of next practices.

Padma Bhushan Late Professor Coimbatore Krishnarao Prahalad (C.K. Prahalad,1941 – 2010), the Paul and Ruth McCracken Distinguished University Professor of Corporate Strategy at the Stephen M. Ross School of Business in the University of Michigan was the inspirational force behind the India@75 initiative.  

Coimbatore Krishnarao Prahalad was one of nine children. His father was a well-known Sanskrit scholar and judge in Madras, (now Chennai). When he was 19, Prahalad was recruited by the manager of the local Union Carbide battery plant. He worked there for four years. Prahalad calls his Union Carbide experience a major inflection point in his life.

Prahalad then went to the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM - A), where he got married and left for Harvard University. There Prahalad wrote a PhD thesis on multinational management in just two and a half years. He returned to India to teach at the IIM-A. But his ideas on global business were under constant attack from nationalists in India. He decided to return to the United States, as an assistant professor at the University of Michigan.

Prahalad was in the top ten management thinker in every major survey for over ten years. Business Week said of him: "a brilliant teacher at the University of Michigan, he may well be the most influential thinker on business strategy." He was member of the blue ribbon commission of the United Nations on Private Sector and Development. He was the first recipient of the Lal Bahadur Shastri Award for contributions to Management and Public Administration in 2000 and was also conferred with the Pravasi Bhartiya Samman and Padma Bhushan in 2009 by the President of India.

What makes CK Prahalad so amazing is that he was not walking the halls of the United Nations or the State Department to address poverty; he was waking up Fortune 500 companies to his vision of social change.  He was attempting to convert the seemingly unconvertible, and he was creating an entirely new paradigm in his wake.

He virtually rewrote the lexicon of business Strategy and created a language that allowed the business community to talk about social change and simultaneously allowed the social sector to talk about capitalism as a tool to fight injustice. This contribution alone demonstrates his sheer brilliance in the face of one of the greatest cultural and ideological divisions of our time.

Prof Prahalad's work was always grounded in his deep commitment to education.  Despite his fame and prestige he always continued to teach and to listen.  He was not just a guru or an icon he was a teacher and a mentor. Despite being based out of USA, he was deeply rooted with India and also drew a vision for his country in its 75th year of Independence called India@75. He dreamt big but at the same time anchored his vision to the inherent potential of India especially the economic resilience, technological vibrancies and high morality; he also drew the broad road map to achieve our objective.

His contributions in the social sector have been innumerable; however noteworthy is emphasis on 500 million skilled technicians in India by 2022 – this has been accepted by the top policy makers of the country and resulted in the formation of National Skill Development Council/ Corporation with a target of 150 million and balance 350 million been distributed amongst the 17 line Ministries of the Govt. of India.

Quotes by Professor C K Prahalad

“The process of socializing the concept of India@75 and working with state level planners and a large cross section of society must now translate into a standing group of volunteers who will work full time – a India@75 Peace Corps – if you will. We need young people with passion, dedication and a willingness to devote a few years of their time to build a new India, the India@75.”

Chairman

Mr Adi Godrej
Chairman, India@75 Foundation and Chairman, Godrej Group

Members

Mr Ajay Piramal
Chairman, Piramal Group & Shriram Group

Chairman

Dr Mukund G Rajan

Chair, CII Council on India@75, Chief Ethics Officer & Chairman of Tata Global Sustainability Council, Tata Sons Ltd

Members

Mr Rajan Navani

Chairman and Managing Director, Jetline Group of Companies

Ms Gayatri Prahalad

Wife of Late Professor C K Prahalad

Ms Tanya Dubash

Executive Director and Chief Brand Officer, Godrej Industries Ltd

Mr Sam Balsara

Chairman and Managing Director, Madison PR

Ms Mini Menon

Editor and Co-Founder, Live History India

Mr D N V Kumara Guru

Director - External Relations, Indian School of Business (ISB)

Ms Shereen Bhan

Managing Editor, Network 18

Mr Nishant Pandey

Country Director, India, American India Foundation

Mr Jayant Krishna

Executive Director & COO, NSDC

Prof Jagan Shah

Director, National Institute of Urban Affairs

Mrs Jagi Mangat Panda

Deputy Chair CII Eastern Region & Managing Director, Ortel Communications Limited

Mr Piruz Khambatta

Deputy Chair CII Western Region & Chairman & Managing Director, Rasna Private Limited

Mr Jacob Joy

National Chair, Young Indians & Managing Director, JJ Confectionaries

Ms Manisha Gupta

Founder and Director, StartUp

Prof Anil Gupta

Professor, Centre for Management in Agriculture, IIM, Ahmedabad

Mr Osama Manzar

Founder & Director, Digital Empowerment Foundation

Ms Rumjhum Chatterjee

Group Managing Director & Head – Human Capital, Feedback Infra Private Limited

Mr Rajeev Doval

National Head – Marketing Communication & Branding Times Foundation -The Times Group and Chief Manager – Corporate, Times of India

Mr Kiran Karnik

Chairman, CII National Committee on Telecom & Broadband

Mr Sanjoy K Roy

Managing Director, Teamwork Arts

Mr Vinod Sharma

Managing Director, Deki Electronics Ltd

Mr Mark Laitflang Stone

Managing Director, Group Avenues

Prof Ashok Jhunjhunwala

Professor, Department of Electrical Engineering, IIT Madras

Mr Umang Bedi

Managing Director, Facebook

Ms Lakshmi Pratury

CEO, INK

Mr Farhan Pettiwala

President, Enactus, India

Mr Atul Satija

Founder, Give India & Nudge Foundation

Mr Rajeev Dubey

Group President (HR & Corporate Services) CEO (After-Market Sector), Member of the Group Executive Board, Mahindra & Mahindra

Mr R Ramanan

Mission Director, Atal Innovation Mision, NITI Aayog

Mr Taranjeet Singh

Country Director, Twitter

Mr Sanjeev Jain

Global Head, Operational Excellence, Cognizant

Prof Rishikesha T Krishnan

Director & Professor of Strategic Management, Indian Institute of Management Indore