There’s a moment in the movie Lincoln, where the President turns to a fiery congressman and says: “A compass, I learnt when I was surveying, it’ll point you True North from where you’re standing. But it offers no guidance on the swamps and deserts and chasms you must navigate along the way.”
Nandan Nilekani has revealed India’s True North to us.
He lays out a vision, in his sweeping, data-laden address at the Raisina Dialogue, that maps out a journey from a $3.8 trillion India today to an $8 trillion India by 2035. The coordinates? Technology. Capital. Entrepreneurship. Formalization. He dubs it “The Great Unlock.”
And like Lincoln’s compass, the vision Nilekani has set out points unambiguously and confidently to where we need to go. It also raises a more profound question: Do we have the courage — and humility — to slog through the swamps to arrive?
The Compass: Simplifying The Four Pillars Of Nilekani’s “Great Unlock”
If India achieves four big unlocks, it can turn into an $8 trillion economy by 2035, says Nandan Nilekani. Not fancy; not complicated — just practical, people-first ideas that can deliver for every Indian, particularly those, who, today, remain excluded.
1. Technology Designed for the Many, Not the Few
The dominant paradigm of advanced technology today is that it’s designed for English speakers, for people in cities, with expensive phones. But that’s not the way most Indians live.
Nilekani wants smart technology available to everyone, in every village and every language.
Imagine:
- A farmer asking a question in either Marathi or Santhali and getting an answer from an AI chatbot on when to plant his crops.
- A child in a small town learning maths on a fun app that speaks Bhojpuri and he learns on his phone.
- A grandmother who can’t read still sending ₹100 via voice-enabled UPI to their grandson.
It’s not about making India glamorous—it’s about making India brighter, broader.
2. Money That Reaches Real People (Rich or Not)
Assume there is a boy called Arjun. He comes from a family of farmers. His mother peddles vegetables alongside the street. She hustles and earns money day in and day out — yet when she approaches the bank and asks for a loan to expand her enterprise, the bank replies “no.” Why? Because she doesn’t have salary slips, tax returns or other big papers.
That’s not fair.
According to Nilekani, this system needs to change. He talks about two ideas:
A. Account Aggregator
That’s a bit like a money report card on your phone.
If Arjun’s mother receives payments via UPI, the app can now display the daily earnings that she makes. She can click a button and say, “Here, bank, here’s my income. The bank notices that she’s getting income regularly — and makes her a loan to purchase a better cart or more vegetables.
She didn’t need to be rich. She only wanted a slice of digital evidence.
B. Tokenizing Land
Arjun’s grandfather has land now, but he only has a paper document that says he acquired it 30 years ago. No bank trusts it. But if that land is digitally registered and authenticated, he can pull it up on his phone and say, “This land is mine.” He can then use it to secure a loan for seeds or farming implements.
In short:
- You present your daily digital coins or your e-certified land.
- You are given access to loans and credits only the wealthy used to receive.
This is about making money, loans and opportunity available to all who work hard — not just those who have a nice suit or a bank balance sheet.
3. Entrepreneurship Without Pin Code Bias
Today, Bengaluru or Gurugram mean startup hubs to us. But Nilekani insists the next big ideas are likely to come from anywhere.
Imagine:
- Building an app that will help local delivery boys receive more orders faster — A boy in Ranchi.
- A girl in Bhopal launches a small skincare brand using local herbs.
- Stories and tips from a personal finance columnist.
Startups do not need glass buildings, they require ideas and courage and digital tools — and Nilekani wants the tools to be everywhere, never mind big cities.
Allow India to innovate from every pin code, not from a few.
4. Formalization at Population Scale
The majority of Indian workers — tailors, drivers, street vendors — work without any kind of official papers, benefits or safeguards. If they become ill, they are not compensated. If they switch jobs, they then lose whatever limited support they had.
Nilekani wants to change this by offering each worker:
- A digital ID of their skills and work experience
- A portable wallet for things like insurance, pensions or accident cover
- A few taps connect them to government support or loans
Imagine:
- A plumber in Bareilly carries a QR code that says how many homes he’s worked in.
- A seamstress in Patna has her insurance on her phone and does not need to fill out five forms each time she changes cities.
- A factory worker in Coimbatore can now apply for a job in Pune without papers — it’s all stored in her DigiLocker.
This is about making invisible workers visible, valued citizens.
Nilekani’s message is simple: “Let’s create an India where technology, money, opportunity, and recognition is not just for the privileged few—but for every single Indian who has the courage to dream and work hard.”
The Intention of Nilekani?
You might wonder — surely, policymakers are aware of all this? Isn’t the government already doing much of it?
That’s like saying a sailor knows where North is. It’s not hard to know which way is north. It’s the fog, the rocks and the bureaucracy — how do you navigate those?
Nilekani isn’t accusing. He’s reminding. Re-aligning. With a map that is incisive and actionable. His aim is not to outrage — but to give cues.
He is India’s most valuable systems thinker: positioned at the intersection of tech, governance and mass adoption, he offers us a compass calibrated by practice, not ideology.
The Swamps: What Could Derail the Great Unlock?
Having a compass that points to True North doesn’t guarantee we’ll get there. The terrain matters. So do the folks who tread the path. Nilekani provides us vision clearly, but as Lincoln once cautioned, the compass does not alert us to the swamps, chasms and deserts in our path.
Here are five swamps—potential pitfalls—that could swamp or sink even the most carefully crafted plans.
1. The Bureaucratic Maze
“When everyone is in charge, no one is responsible.”
In India, the government is a large tangle of departments, ministries, and overlapping responsibilities. Reforms such as Account Aggregator, land tokenization and benefit portability demand coordination between several ministries — Finance, IT, Agriculture, Rural Development, etc.
But in practice:
- Direct communication between departments is non-existent.
- You get transferred before any of that is done.
- Dozens of pilot projects are launched … and then quietly abandoned.
In the absence of dedicated, empowered teams (like the UIDAI under Nilekani), big ideas die through the slow-moving files.
SWAMP WARNING: Good ideas don’t fail because they’re wrong; they fail because they’re buried in the fog of too many bosses and too little ownership.
2. Political Time vs Reform Time
“The elections happen every 5 years. Real change takes 10.”
Other reforms—such as digitizing and tokenizing land—are necessary to unlock credit. But they are also politically fraught.
Why?
- Land ownership is a politically charged matter in rural India.
- Land records are frequently disputed, unclear or manufactured.
- Discussing “blockchain and tokens” mystifies (and scares) farmers as well as politicians.
Politicians fear backlash. So rather than long-term reforms, they want quick, populist giveaways: loan waivers, free electricity and so on.
Swamp Watch: The democratic clock ticks loud — and long-term reform often gets drowned in short-term political cacophony.
3. The Quiet Tyranny of Mediocre Execution
“India doesn’t lack ideas. It lacks follow-through.”
You can create the greatest digital experience. But what if:
- The health worker’s tablet breaks and she can’t collect the data?
- The AI chatbot speaks English, and the farmer knows only Kannada?
- A startup has to fill 29 forms and take clearance from 6 departments just to launch?
Great launches, but bad maintenance — that’s India. We make a good start, but fail in the details.
Swamp Warning: They say you may have the vision but do you deliver? Its like planting seeds but forgetting to water them. Execution is everything.
4. The Trust Deficit
“If people don’t trust the system, they’re not going to use it.”
Well-meaning reforms — such as formalizing small businesses — seem great on paper. But for a street vendor or shopkeeper, “formalization” means:
- New taxes
- More inspectors
- Unfriendly government forms
And when they hear “AI” or “data sharing,” they ask:
Will the government monitor my activity? Will I lose my benefits? Do I need to pay more bribes?
That’s fear, not mere ignorance.
Swamp Warning: No trust, no tech. Without public trust, the most advanced system is destined for rejection by the very people it seeks to assist. We need empathy, not engineering, to do the right thing.
5. Capacity Chasms
“A plan is only as good as the hands that execute it.”
Much of the execution power for Nilekani’s vision does not reside in Delhi, but rather with state governments and local officials. And that’s where we run into a wall.
In many states:
- There aren’t enough trained officers or — digital infrastructures.
- Some local governments are doing so much — schools, sanitation and the like — that they are stretched thin.
- Training staff on AI tools, or bringing MSMEs onto new platforms has no bandwidth.
Swamp Warning: No matter how well-designed, reforms cannot reach the people if the last-mile delivery is weak.
Vision must have companions in order for it to be effective.
A good compass works as a guide. But to traverse the swamps, India will have to:
- Cross-departmental mission-mode teams
- Political will to push reforms after elections
- Perfect execution down to the village level
- Open, trust-establishing communication
- Above all, strong state capacity
Nilekani has told us what, and why. But until we address the how, we may be stuck walking in circles with a perfect compass.
Who Must Walk the Swamp?
Now, here’s where we have to confront the uncomfortable truth: Everyone wants a better India but not everyone wants to carry that weight on their shoulders.
- Central Government has to supply rails, funding, and top-down pressure.
- States should own last-mile delivery — and be held accountable for outcomes.
- It’s time for the private sector to stop being the victim of regulation and design for Bharat.
- We as citizens and the civil society must build trust, inclusion and demand.
But in the end, the buck stops where the map gets drawn: PMO and NITI Aayog have to be cartographers-in-chief. They cannot merely love Nilekani’s compass — they must deploy sherpas who will traverse the terrain.
What Salmon Are Not Featured In The Compass? A Series Of Ongoing Questions
Most importantly, no compass registers topography. So here are the marshes Nilekani floats over:
1. What if the kids want to learn but the teacher is missing?
We do have a learning crisis, yes — but that is where AI and chatbots can make a transformative impact. In regions that lack strong teachers, AI tutors could provide personalized, multilingual, 24/7 education. The opportunity is not to replace the teachers but to extend their reach. But the tools won’t make their way to rural India profitably on their own. This is where the state has to come in — to fund, deploy and ensure quality.”
2. What If the climber is hungry? Or anxious & stressed?
Mental health, food security and emotional well-being are the silent underpinnings of productivity. Yet on top of all this, we are asking tired humans to climb Everest without addressing these.
3. What if the city is sinking?
Migration is exploding. But cities are still broken — unaffordable, unplanned, unkind. (Nilekani is mute on urban reform, yet that is where employment and entrepreneurship will gravitate.
4. What if the climber is a woman with a sick parent?
We risk everything when we ignore the unpaid care economy. If women are full-time nurses for elderly relatives, they can’t be entrepreneurs. There is no vision at all for an ageing India or caregivers.
5. What if everyone’s climbing a different mountain?
The tech and formalization assume people want the same thing. But human aspiration is messy, and nonlinear. Not everyone wants to scale. Others are simply looking for safety, dignity or a better life for their children.
The Train, the Bridge, and the Ticket Collector
To put it most crisply: Think about some high-speed train that Nilekani would like India to get on. The engine roars, the destination is clear. But there’s a problem:
The bridge ahead is a work in progress. The compartments are filled unevenly. And the ticket collector is demanding Aadhaar, UPI and GST returns, and three forms the villagers don’t understand.
The question is not whether the train can rub, it’s who will build the bridge? Who stands to make sure no one is stranded? Who will design for the traveller, not just the track?
The real “Great Unlock” is that. Not merely the unlocking of growth—but of participation.
The Compass Is Correct —But We Have to Construct the Bridge
Nandan Nilekani has given India a lovely compass. But a compass does not construct roads. It also does not warn us about crocodiles in the marsh.
Clarity is the start. What needs to come next is conviction.
This is not a startup playbook — The Great Unlock is the blueprint of a civilization struggling to take off without abandoning its citizens.
Whether his vision is right is not the question that matters. The real question is: Do we have the patience to walk it, the courage to lead it and the wisdom to adapt it when the ground shifts?
That — not the compass — will determine our True North.
The END
Sources & References
- Nandan Nilekani’s Raisina Dialogue 2024 Speech
- Primary source of the vision, data, and framing around “The Great Unlock.”
(Video/Transcript available on Observer Research Foundation & MEA channels.)
- Primary source of the vision, data, and framing around “The Great Unlock.”
- UIDAI & Aadhaar Data
- https://uidai.gov.in
- Stats on Aadhaar adoption, eKYC, and authentications.
- UPI & NPCI Data
- https://www.npci.org.in
- Monthly transaction volumes, user base, merchant adoption.
- Account Aggregator Framework
- https://sahamati.org.in
- Explains India’s data empowerment architecture and current rollout status.
- Economic Survey of India 2023–24
- https://indiabudget.gov.in
- Formalization rates, MSME data, digital economy outlook.
- ASER Report 2023 (Annual Status of Education Report)
- https://asercentre.org
- Foundational learning levels across rural India.
- NASSCOM & BCG Reports on India’s Tech & AI Ecosystem
- AI adoption trends, startup growth, and talent projections.
- World Bank & IMF India Projections
- Growth trajectory comparisons, GDP projections to 2035.
- Brookings India & CPR India Reports
- On urbanization, spatial inequality, and state capacity.
- Plaksha, Wadhwani AI, and Khan Academy India
- Use of AI and EdTech in solving last-mile education challenges.