Road to India@100: Supercharged progress

India has come a long way in the 75 years since its independence. As the world’s largest democracy and the fifth-largest economy that continues to be amongst the fastest growing, India has arrived on the global stage. It’s been a journey of perseverance and resilience for a nation of 1.2 billion that was once categorised as ‘low income’ and was among the ‘fragile five’. We must celebrate what we have collectively achieved. Not only are we the IT and technology backbone of the world but we are also emerging as a major start-up and manufacturing hub.

And as India assumes the G20 presidency, it makes me even more optimistic that as a nation we will achieve much more in the next 25 years than what we have in the past 75 years. The next quarter of the century can be one of ‘supercharged progress’ for India if we play it right and build on the momentum we have.

The India@100 I see is amongst the world’s top three economies that’s a leader in technology, services and manufacturing. I see the next FAANGs coming out of this nation of a billion-plus people. And I see an India that has one of the largest middle- to high-income populations thanks to our demographic dividend.

So, what must we do to supercharge India’s progress and unlock the nation’s potential? The India@100 conversation comes at a juncture when post-Covid-19 geopolitical realignments and supply chain disruptions have made India more important than ever on the world stage. We must not lose this opportunity and leverage the abundant availability of the workforce to replicate India’s IT success story in manufacturing. We have seen some early successes: who would have imagined iPhones being manufactured in India and semiconductor giants drawing up plans to set up facilities in the country? It’s great to see the efforts made by the Government of India in this direction. But we must remember that we are in the race with some very worthy competitors (nations). So, more reforms and transparency, agile policy and legal framework, and ease of doing business are areas we must double down on to continue attracting the right investments.

India must move up the ladder in the global technology ecosystem and not just be happy being the IT backbone of the world. People from India and of Indian origin run virtually every top technology company in the world. So, why shouldn’t the next Microsoft, Google or SpaceX come from India by 2047? We already have our young entrepreneurs building some phenomenal technologies and digital stacks that solve real-world problems. What we need is an enabling environment to scale up these globally to the first world than merely having emerging market aspirations.

To support these growth ambitions over the next 25 years, India must also upskill its vast young population. From overhauling the education system to creating centres of excellence, especially in higher education and research, we must build an ecosystem of the future, so that our young people have access to affordable world-class schools and universities in India itself. This, to me, is the single biggest intervention required to move up the value chain and its impact will be felt till the bottom of the pyramid and make the growth more inclusive.

India is also extremely vulnerable to the impact of climate change. This can be a big challenge to our growth aspirations, given our massive population—from food and water security to livelihood issues. We must integrate ‘sustainability’ into everything we do and make it a national movement. Businesses will have to be climate resilient. Sadly, the awareness is too low right now and we need a concerted effort to preserve our natural environment and rich biodiversity. Public-private-partnerships can play an extremely important role in this area and throw up innovative solutions to manage the balance between growth and sustainability. India’s success will be the world’s success in this particular area.

Last but not the least, while the fruits of our economic growth will help uplift hundreds of millions more Indians from the low-income bracket, we must double down on building an inclusive economy through philanthropy. Here, individual philanthropy and NGOs are moving the needle but it’s still too little for a large nation like India. We must create a more evolved culture of giving back some of the fruits of growth for those left behind, by opening windows of opportunity. Here, our large young population can be a big change agent and we will have many more privileged ones amongst them in the decades to come.

A supercharged India@100 is not just an aspiration; it’s something very much within our grasp. All it requires is the collective will of all stakeholders to make sure this rocket takes off and reaches the orbit. I am pretty sure we will get there and perhaps even exceed our expectations. Looking forward to our tryst with destiny once more. 

The writer is Chairperson of HCL Tech