Nandan Nilekani is currently the Chairperson of the Unique Identification Authority of India. He has written forewords for books like The Beautiful Tree, India's New Capitalists: Caste, Business, and Industry in a Modern Nation and contributed to Romancing the Decade. As an entrepreneur, he was one of the co-founders of Infosys. He was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 2006, and named as the Forbes Businessman of the Year in 2007. His wife is Rohini, and they have two children.

Imagining India offers a visionary outlook about India and its burgeoning future through the eyes of its author Nandan Nilekani, who is an accomplished business leader. An original and balanced perspective on India s past, present, and future is presented in an engaging manner. The central ideas that have shaped India s growth are reviewed strongly in Imagining India. India s earlier socialist policies, which stunted its growth, is looked at critically. The book traces the policies and efforts of the past and present leaders, wherein they tried to develop new frameworks to suit India s challenges. The author lays emphasis on the role played by the youth of the country in its development. Further, he throws light on the impact of information technology on business and governance. Other topics covered include labour reform, caste politics, urbanisation, infrastructure, higher education, English language, and globalisation. He charts ideas that are pivotal to India s future growth, and stresses that new ideas for social security, environment, public health, etc. are required to secure India s future.