Tech, partnerships key in transforming India and the world

If India must ready itself for the world of tomorrow, what strategic choices must it make? What instrumentalities are at hand to achieve the chosen objectives?

- Shyam Saran

Like a good account keeper, it is useful to look at what the country’s assets and liabilities are. How should one leverage the assets; how should one minimise the liabilities?

The future trajectory of the world is uncertain; it is fluid. But certain trend lines are clear:

One, technology will be the main driver of growth; it will be the main source of national power. India has a significant pool of scientific and technical manpower which is still expanding. But barring a few islands of excellence such as India’s space programme, its digital stack, and its network of high-tech global capability centres (GCC), there is no nationwide ecosystem to fully utilise, constantly upgrade and steadily expand opportunities for the country’s talent pool. Government policy by default favours the export of highly skilled manpower rather than leverage this invaluable asset to promote India’s modernisation and economic and social advancement. Human resource is key to leveraging all other resources. There is a large pool of highly skilled ethnic Indian manpower contributing to the development of several advanced countries, mainly the US. Constituents of this pool are facing xenophobic resentment and even outright hostility in their host countries. Why not turn crisis into opportunity and put in place policies to welcome them back to become active participants in India’s growth story? Inward mobility rather than outward mobility should be our objective.