India: Aiming to be a multi-trillion economy
This book has been sponsored by Bharat Global Industries Forum (BGIF), a premier national think-and-action platform uniting India’s top corporations, policymakers, and global investors to support the concept and accomplishment of Atmanirbhar Bharat (self-reliant India) and helping this nation to grow into a manufacturing hub with a $30 trillion economy.
The central theme of the book aims at Vision 2047, going beyond headline numbers of GDP ($30 trillion) and GDP per capita ($18000/-) to the overall well-being of ordinary citizens. NITI Ayog’s ambitions of creating an India of 2047 where the citizens are intimately connected to governance, assured best of education, health care, social services and public infrastructure are discussed against the backdrop of past inertia and baggage of organisational slack.
He describes the unsatisfactory state of private sector investment in R&D and the inefficiencies of SMEs. At the same time, some early silver linings are also highlighted - like the high percentage of indigenous defense systems, India’s achievements in space, quantum computing and semiconductors. The unique feature of author’s style is his dependence on hard data without diluting the readability for an ordinary student of the subject.
In a broader sense linking 'Viksit Bharat 2047 Vision' to the three major pillars- economy, national security and geopolitics makes the road to 2047 much more distinct and meaningful. Students of macro and political economy will find the chapter on economy very lucid and informative, as it links the current milieu with the ancient - Kautilya’s Arthashastra; and western economic philosophy of Adam Smith.
The book highlights the Indian philosophy of oneness of humanity. Ekatmavad, or Integral Humanism, is a socio-economic and political philosophy propounded by Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya in 1964. It presents an integrated approach to human existence, balancing individual needs with societal welfare.
The author has emphasised that national security should not be looked at only in terms of military strength, but holistically and that defense expenditure should be viewed as economic investment. The issues of indigenisation of defense production have been very lucidly explained with the help of case study on HF 24 and LCA Tejas and the overall strength of Indian Air Force.
On geopolitics the book has exposed to the global challenges arising out of national ambitions based on power, assumed roles in global affairs and theology driven undercurrents that trigger conflicts. India’s strength, challenges, compulsions and their impact on achieving the vision 2047 have been neatly explained. The author has done well to bring out the role of soft power in achieving geopolitical goals.
Since the Bharatiya Janata Party came to power under Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014, India has witnessed a profound shift toward mainstreaming Hindu civilizational identity and state-backed cultural nationalism. This movement views its current trajectory as a long-overdue decolonization and public reclamation of indigenous heritage, contrasting sharply with decades of post-independence "secular" governance. This post-2014 era in India is at last emerging as a vital correction to centuries of cultural and political marginalization, during which foreign Islamic rulers and British colonial powers suppressed native Hindu identity, history, and traditions. This political shift in 2014 of democratic reassertion of India’s indigenous civilizational ethos was waiting to happen.
Massive development of roads, railways, and ports; growth in manufacturing through production incentives; expansion of the tech and renewable energy sectors and strong domestic consumption of the rising middle class are indications of the strong possibility of the aims stated. The author served in the Corps of Signals and retired in 2006 as Deputy Director General of Army Signals Intelligence.
Col Anil Bhat, VSM (Retd) is a strategic affairs analyst and former Defence Ministry and Indian Army spokesperson; Views presented are personal.
