The Vision of A Great Indian Growth Story

In this post, let us try to get hold of some internal views and outcomes from these times. I had written long back, couple of years ago back in India itself, that the days are going a bit unusual in that I am feeling great whenever the populace is feeling bad and feeling bad whenever the public is feeling good. If I am riding high, feeling great for some days, there is a good chance that it hurts quite a few. If I am feeling down and out, bad and negative, there is a good possibility that many are feeling great and positive. The vibes matter, emotions matter and leading a great life with a purpose encompassing all these encounters matters in the end to produce something great and out of ordinary. Everyone look at good means to produce average outcomes but when we are after great outcomes the means can sometimes be haphazard, uncertain and difficult. We are all going through these means these days to produce glorious days in the end and beyond. 

Let us look at some of these means. As I said, when your good day produce a spate of emotions to everyone else, it becomes tough to negotiate for those people on day one. On day two, they are again treated to the same cause to produce similar effect. It repeats on day three, four, five and so on, by the time which it is habituated and normalized. The people grow numb to the cause when subjected to the similar, repeated treatment. This treatment, when continued for years altogether, will be one difficult to know the outcome. This has been the same when I was working in India. Imagine the rise in heat, when I travelled to U.S. and continued here for quite a period of time. I don’t know what comes out of this normalized big bang subjugation of elements. When you emote over time, it becomes normalized. When you feel embarrassed over a long time, it becomes normalized. But what happened initially remains the same and the reactions which are part of the phenomenon remain the same. These reactions may be bad, but we are looking at the products of it.

 

Let me pause and put together few more definitions - Jealousy is feeling or showing envy toward someone or their achievements and advantages. Inspiration is the process of being mentally stimulated to do or feel something, especially to emulate something great. Inspiration can be activated, captured, and manipulated, and it has a major effect on important life, societal outcomes. There is a thin line between negative emotions, jealousy and positive inspiration breeding growth and development. Everyone should engulf themselves in environment which injects positive inspiration to co-create a greater destiny. The means and process should be inspiring enough to lay out a great future and shape the destiny of involved entities. I hope my work back in India, trip to U.S. is on correct path, struck the right note and inspiring one and all towards a greater progress, growth and development.

 

Vision is the faculty or state of being able to see. The above is what I can see as a vision for India, with all the progress and development which is going to occur. This is the bigger objective, greater plan and higher discernment of present days that needs to be realized and created in the shorter, longer run. The growth of the people is required to see the growth of the country. The men who personifies the nation and the icons need to grow as well for the nation to grow. The growth of the common man on the ground is important as well to resemble it on the larger picture. This is the outcome envisioned and the means discussed which point to the similar shared goal. Let us go through the grind, put in the efforts and go through the emotional upheavals to reach the brighter destination.

How can we achieve the growth as envisioned. The most visible indicators on the ground are 1. Poverty 2. Infrastructure 3. Economy. At the minimum, these three need to be worked out to write our desired destiny. All the three have got a big fillip in the recent past. One is interlinked with the other and the visible, on-the-ground changes in the three areas gives a big boost to the national growth. As many as 415 million people exited multi-dimensional poverty in India in the last 15 years, with the incidence of poverty showing a steep decline from 55.1% to 16.4%. The United Nations Development Programme, cited this as a tremendous change and a historic gain while also highlighting the challenges as India continues to have the largest number of poor people world-wide at 228.9 million in 2020. While there is a huge improvement, it still is a voluminous task to reach the finish mark.

 

Infrastructure is one more visible indicator to determine a nations progress. One can have an impression on the nation’s development by just looking at the landscape around. Look at any of the U.S. cities or highways or other infra network – everything is so sophisticated and visibly pleasing. Any visitor to any developed part of the world can catch the nation’s pulse by looking at the infrastructure. The same should be mirrored across the length and breadth of India in a way that resembles the new and developed nation. The Government in the last 8 years has given highest importance to this area which is greatly commendable.

 

The Govt. of India has been focusing on the infrastructure sector, believing it to have a multiplier effect in stimulating the economic growth of the country. The commitment towards this sector is evident with the government consistently increasing its budgetary allocation for infrastructure development. As of the year 2022-23, the direct capital expenditures of the Government of India are expected to reach seven and a half lakh crore rupees, up from 1.75 lakh crore rupees in the year 2013-14. The rise of allocation and expenditure tells in a way that there are strong headwinds for infrastructure to grow which in-turn grows the nation.

There is definitely huge area covered as far as roadways are concerned. Two lakh kms of National Highways are targeted to be completed by 2024-25 under PM Gati Shakti. Government aims to expand the National Highways Network by 25,000 Km in 2022-23. The pace of constructing NHs has improved across the country and there are many completed or in-progress. India’s longest expressway, the 1,380 km eight lane Delhi-Mumbai expressway is expected to be completed by March 2023. There are some statements made akin to U.S. that by 2024 everyone will opine about India what U.S. President John F Kennedy said - American roads are not good because America is rich, but America is rich because American roads are good. That is the rate at which Indian roads are being transformed and it should not restrict to just national highways but percolate to lowest levels including state, district and village roads.

 

The third one regarding the economy is talked about by everyone. The vision 2020 statement by a stalwart Abdul Kalam made an aspiring and right prediction that India would become 5th largest economy by 2020. There is still a long way to go to realize his ‘economically inclusive developed nation’ goal. Let us build a bigger and bolder Vision 2047, or the 100th year of free India to be among the top three nations economically and lay out the practical steps to achieve the same. The time is on our hands, work is done at a rapid pace and the population simply need to participate in the Great Indian Growth story that is bound to happen.

 

For the reforms to take place inside-out, nations population need to act in sync which needs to drive them from within their own selves rather than by obligation. These days are upon us, and we need to play our part to make the imprint. The terms of the present government more than vindicates the stand and trajectory. It is up to the private citizens to take the partnership in the collective act and not leave to a single heroic person. No one person is entirely responsible or solely persuasive to change the face of the nation. It is the collective work, done in a democratic way which will only propel the nation to reach its goals.

 

Diverging a bit, this week India won the blind cricket world cup, creating history by winning it for third time. The power of blind Indian cricket men and their determination is simply astounding which highlights the penetration of the sport to the grassroots. Argentina won the football world cup and the Tendulkar equivalent in football, ‘Messi’ah won it miraculously single handedly for his country.  The final game crisscrossed for both the sides, came to a draw, went into extra-time, came to a draw again and the grid lock is broken in penalties. Lionel Messi has led Argentina to World Cup glory after the most thrilling final in the 92-year history of the tournament. The days are feeling like great times to see the great men do great feats.