Wandering About in Slumdog Land | Part 11: The Era of ‘Mobile-enabled’ Slumdogs
Danny Boyle’s, eight Academy Awards winning yet controversial film Slumdog Millionaire, set and filmed in India, gave the country another name derivative – the Slumdog Land. The name tagging apart, the film also carried a deeper symbolism for India, a land of many contradictions.
As India surges forward in taking big strides of development, there are millions of slumdogs, aspiring to become millionaires all over the country in their own entrepreneurial ways. The making of new India thus needs a thoughtful blend of big ticket macro development as well as the inclusive growth of micro-small-mid sized enterprises for a sustainable growth path.
27th Feb 2009: After a lavish breakfast and handshakes, it was time for me to get back to earth although I would have liked to hang around in heaven for a day more. This time it was Jet Airways that ferried me from Trivandrum to Chennai and then to Kolkata without any further hiccups.
On the way back, I reminisced about the various presentations made at the seminar. Various organizations were taking technology right up to the remote districts, not only to extend much-needed products and services, but also to open up income generating opportunities. As I had anticipated, the focus was on mobile applications, reducing infrastructural requirements. Mobile phones provided the cheapest technology-option for ‘slumdogs’ and the brightest minds were working overtime to create mobile-based applications for all kinds of services, right from healthcare, education to financial transactions. 
To be continued …
