India: 11 years of development, progress and nation building

AS INDIA embarked on its fast-paced human-centric developmental journey to become a developed country, “Viksit Bharat @2047” by the time it completes the century of independence, the past decade has been exceptional across the national and strategic spectrum.

- AMB DEBNATH SHAW

PM Narendra Modi’ call to dispense with the slavish mentality and rise and shine with the mantra of reform, perform and transform has already begun to yield remarkable dividends. Over 1 550 archaic and cumbersome laws were repealed, and jurisprudence was updated.

In 2017, India rose sharply from 130th to 63rd place in the Doing Business Index of the World Bank, leading to a notable increase in Foreign Direct Investment. The innovation ecosystem has generated 1.6 million startups from just 500 a decade ago, including 118 unicorns.

From a fragile five to become the 4 th largest economy in a decade is a remarkable achievement by any standards. According to Bloomberg, based on IMF data, China, Indiaand the USA are projected to be the three global growth engines from 2025-2030.

India has also emerged as a key proponent of the fight against climate change and a spokesman against the ‘Green Apartheid”

India has committed to ‘zero carbon’ by 2070, but by all accounts, it seems the target may be achieved much earlier.

In 2015, India, along with France-launched the International Solar Alliance (ISA), perhaps the most consequential initiative after the NAM movement of the 1950s. A monumental achievement is that 50% of India’s installed electricity capacity is now attributable to non-fossil sources.

This is integral to the quest for Indias energy security, which is essential for it to continue to remain the fastest-growing major economy in the world. India is converting ambition and aspiration into action.

Not only did India launch another global initiative, ‘The Global Biofuels Alliance’ during the Presidency of G20 in September 2023, but it also completed the ethanol mixing targets way before.

The same applies to its Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) where India is the first and the fastest to comply with.