When India hits a century

When we got Independence in 1947, there was great optimism and hope. But that hope soon vanished when we were muddled with myriad problems and lingering poverty. In terms of technology, we languished at the bottom of the world pyramid.

Our absolute low was at the end of the 1980s when there was talk of the entire country going bankrupt. Government gold was flown out of the country, as part of a pledge. A journalist asked a question to the then Prime Minister of India Chandra Shekhar: Sir, are you selling the country? To which the PM quipped back: Who will buy it?

If 1947-1991 looked grim, then 1991-2023 has been an exhilarating journey full of growth, technology, hope, and optimism. We have ended this period as the world’s fifth largest economy, probably the fourth strongest military, and the third tech power and from second we have emerged as the largest population in the world.

In the 2010s we had removed a record number of people from poverty, something undone by the pandemic, but we are fighting back. With India emerging as the No. 1 Digital Democracy of the world, we can finally reap demographic dividends.

What will 2023-2047 be like? Can we sustain the momentum and emerge as both the world’s No. 1 economy and No. 1 tech power? 10 years back this would have been laughed at, but now it is at least considered, discussed, and debated. There is a chance this could actually happen, or we could be on the cusp of doing it when Independent India hits a century.

It’s a long road ahead. The 2000s gave us a great many solutions and left us with a few problems too. But today we have the manpower, infrastructure, and resources to push forward the advantage. We have been pushing right from 1991 to now. We have converted all problems into opportunities.

The economic crisis of the late 1980s became the landmark Liberalization of the early 1990s. The Y2K crisis made us an IT services superpower. The Africa AIDS crisis made us the drug factory of the world. The pandemic turned us into digital transformation machine.

I would say that both the West and China are in decline and among large countries, India offers the most hope for the world.

sunilr@cybermedia.co.in