India's bold moves boost global standing, but the journey isn't over yet, says Ronnie Screwvala

India is in a very sharp place today. I deliberately say ‘sharp’. Look around us in the world and India would have made some of the sharpest moves in recent times. Our foreign policy for the first time stands out as firm, neutral and non-aligned, always for peaceful resolutions and unwilling to be a part of or support a war. And let’s face it: no one can bully us or mess with us; and every Indian travelling or working around the world stands tall and commands respect.

Economically we stand stronger than any other time in our history, in multiple ways, from growth to having some of the strongest (some may say conservative) regulatory systems. But it is this balance that made us stand apart during the 2008 financial crisis and many more after that. We just need to look over at our larger geographical neighbour and many of their indulgences to know just how sharp we have been.

This is the India that is now the envy of many of our allies as also our sceptics and it’s also a time where most of us do believe that tomorrow is and will be better than yesterday.

But we need to be much sharper. A cup half full is exciting but at most times it remains that way and becomes a lost opportunity—we’ve seen that multiple times over the last decades and so we just have to be super sharp on many things in the next two decades:

Yes, the top 150 million Indians have raw ambition; make India a start-up entrepreneurial country; lead in creating strong companies and institutions; and excel as professionals in the field of medicine, technology, aerospace, rocket science and much more. But unless the bottom 600 million of our 1.4-billion-strong demographic raises its aspiration levels way above its present base, we cannot move to being a really developed country by 2047. Grants and welfare schemes are critical for physical poverty but we as a nation need to turn around the mental poverty and make each Indian feel she/he is in control of her own destiny. The rural-urban divide has to get narrower and it’s up to every one of us, not just the government, to play a role.

Yes, creating a highly skilled workforce and then having jobs to match can be our Achilles heel, but I think we are at the strongest stage of accepting this to be a real problem and moving to urgent action. Here again the role of the private sector, public sector, government and youth is going to be critical. Our present education system is what it is, but it cannot take us to 2047. We need a tsunami of upskilling and uplearning by using the power of the digital and online space that can solve for things at scale and allow each of us who is privileged to be a teacher, mentor, evangelist and inspirer to be involved. We each just need to touch 10 other lives every year and we can reshape our country like no other.

Yes, we need a DNA change on how to look to be a part of a global economy. Take our long overdue efforts for free trade agreements (FTAs) with most of the world—and we are stuck with the double standards of our industry and leaders—as we seek protectionism, yet free trade and globalisation. This has to get sharp and change.

Yes, we need an executable blueprint to be a soft power. As perception is an important part of success, so we need to be a soft power in our rich culture, our storytelling, our history and tourism, and our innovation. We want to originate, not duplicate. And we, unlike some of the western powers, want to lead by example, not lead to dominate, as that is the show of real strength and power.

What an incredible time to be alive, kicking, creating, excelling, inspiring, executing as also giving back in India.

The author is Co-founder of upGrad and Swades Foundation. Views are personal