The event was CII's Western Region's annual seminar: `A Time to Dream' and the speakers were management guru CK Prahlad, WorldTel chief Sam Pitroda and nuclear scientist APJ Abdul Kalam. Prahlad said that contrary to popular perception, the morphing of the Indian economic scene was already under way. Outlining the vision for the industry, he said it was not an issue of having to catch up with the rest of the world, "It's now time to leapfrog." In what must have come as music to industry's ears he said the country could do it. And the only way to do it is "break the genetic code," he said, refering to 50 years of economic policy and industry practices.

According to Prahlad, the early warning signals were already there. Infotech stocks were trading at over ten times their earningsand FMCG companies at five times. The spread of high tech was staggering and the Internet had created a new level of consumer sophistication. While viewing these as positive signs, Prahlad said the key to growth would be in bringing the 500 million poor people into the market economy. The poor were the future market, and could not be ignored at any cost. "We have political democracy, we need economic democratisation." He maintained that the poor would be the engine of growth. Scientific advisor to the defence ministry, Abdul Kalam said that Indian scientists had developed a flight-control system for the light-combat aircraft despite technology sanctions by the US. "We have already shown how to handle sanctions by developing our own indigenous flight control system," Kalam observed. Industry had to invest in design to acheive unique process engineering which would make a significant technological addition, he said adding that technological strength would generate economic strength.

"I dream that one dayIndia will be able to fly indigenous passenger jets," Kalam said. The touch of realism came when he said that the dreams would have to be realised by industry in synergy with research and development units, academics, and various agencies. Describing telecom and information technology as a social-leveller, WorldTel chief Sam Pitroda said that it could remove cultural distance and intellectual barriers. He said that the telecom, cable and infotech revolution could change the scenario of the country. Information denial could not be the order of the day when one had internet connection. On leapfrogging - telecom and the internet, he said India needed far-reaching political and administrative reforms to transform the country with a thrust on population control, water schemes and literacy programmes.

Sam Pitroda said that WorldTel has proposed a memorandum of understanding with the Maharashtra government to develop internet infrastructure. The $100 million project would provide an internet backbone for locallanguage and content. Pitroda said that the Maharashtra government would be expected to pick up equity in the project which envisages setting up Internet-community centres. This will enable people to access information on various matters such as land records and birth certificates directly without having to approach official agencies. The state had heard the proposal with enthusiasm and Worldtel hoped to get a firm response within a week, he said.

Worldtel has already entered into a Rs 400-crore joint venture with the Gujarat government for setting up a comprehensive modern information communication network in the state and recently signed an agreement with the Tamil Nadu government for establishing 1,000 internet community centres each having 20 terminals.