Amartya Sen Professor Harvard University

Amartya Sen Professor Harvard University
NASSCOM: Leadership Forum
Some admirations come from near, others from very far. My respect and reverence for the
IT industry in general and the extraordinarily dynamic and triumphant Indian IT industry in
particular have come, by necessity, from some distance, since I am a dabbler in things far away
from IT services and software. When the invitation came to attend this year's NASSCOM meeting
and the leadership forum, I thought that this either indicated some mixing up of my identity ("wake
up, wake up," I wanted to say, "I teach non-IT subjects at a university!"), or alternatively, it
reflected generous interest of NASSCOM leaders to reach out (or as my students say, "hang out")
beyond their principality.
Of the two possibilities, identity confusion is the more exciting. My late friend Isaiah
Berlin, the philosopher, recounted to me his exciting experiences when he was invited to a musical
gathering under the mistaken impression that he was Irving Berlin, the musical composer, rather
than Isaiah Berlin, the political philosopher. Apparently, the assembled gathering was somewhat
disappointed by Isaiah Berlin's inability to respond to repeated requests to provide some insights
into the melodies from Annie Get Your Gun or Call Me Madam. And, of course, Sen is a more
common name than Berlin, offering more opportunity of identity confounding. Indeed, I was once
asked in a gathering of very energetic and very globally minded Ugandan students - this happened
at the Makerere College in Kampala - whether I, Amartya Sen, was any relation of Sun Yat Sen. I
had to tell my interlocutor, "No, but we are trying hard."

To read the whole speech please visit www.nasscom.in

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