India Rising: The second innings

India’s meteoric rise on the global stage over the past decade is undeniable—but beneath the dazzling numbers lies an urgent need to confront the softer, systemic challenges that will define whether we truly become a developed nation by 2047.

- KRISHAN KALRA

India has made unprecedented progress in the last decade—huge gains on the economic front, infrastructure buildup, strategic business & tax reforms, science & technology, unbelievable digitisation, and the country’s place on the Global High Table.

In our amazing progress, there are indeed areas that have become the envy of even the developed world. Just look at how our digitisation has spread its wings—₹44 lakh crore transferred directly to the poor under DBT, almost 1,000 crore documents uploaded on more than 50 crore Digi-lockers, UPI transactions worth ₹24 lakh crore in just the month of April 2025— “every second global real-time digital transaction happens in India” screamed a newspaper headlines recently. It is incredible that the cost of data transfer in India is perhaps the lowest in the world - ‘a mere ₹10 per GB’. Our super-efficient election management continues to baffle the world. We are making inroads into indigenous defense equipment manufacture; we have made the world’s tallest rail bridge; our highways are increasing at a rapid clip...just to mention a few things.

However, it is time to launch another set of reforms to tackle the softer and societal issues and bolster our crumbling moral fabric—crucial for meeting our target of becoming a developed country by 2047. Such a transformation requires tough decision-making ability, some of which can be contrary to the usual political pitch for appeasing vote banks. Here are 12 issues we need to address.

1. Wealth distribution and inclusivitiy.