The incumbent BJP is projecting that the Indian
National Congress, which has been at the helm for a substantial part of these
75years, is primarily responsible for slower, unequal and misdirected growth and
development of the country. It is also assuring the country that the incumbent
government is not only undoing the mistakes of commission and omissions committed
by the earlier governments and taking impactful corrective action; but also
laying the foundation for a stronger, faster, equitable and well directed growth &
development of the country.
The party in opposition, Indian National Congress
(INC), on the other hand is refuting these claims. INC is insisting that it was
their leadership that built a strong institutional framework that laid the foundation
for a stronger, egalitarian and harmonious India.
I am sure both the parties would have strong
arguments to support their respective contentions and this game of political grandstanding
may continue forever. Nonetheless, I find it pertinent to take note of the
present strengths of Indian economy and society that could really lead the transformation
of Indian economy into a middle class economy over the course of next couple of
decades; and also the weaknesses that could thwart the process of process of
faster and sustainable growth and development of the country.
In particular, I would like to highlight the following
five factors that now form the core of India’s strategy to achieve the
ambitious growth and development goals.
UIDAI (Aadhar) is widely acknowledged as one of
the most sophisticated and pervasive digital identification programs in the
world. The program provided a digital identity to more than 1.31 billion citizens
of India. This identity now forms the core of the financial inclusion and social
security system in India, eliminating the leakages, middlemen and
inefficiencies of the system. Aadhar also forms the core of the financial services,
telecom and social sector services like health and education.
The UIDAI model has also been adopted to provide digital
identity to all corporate entities, corporate directors, taxable properties, to
facilitate faster identification & transactions; and minimize the
probability of frauds.
The services like DigiLocker - a free digital storage
space for documents available to all citizens – are also primarily based on
Aadhar authentication services.
UIDAI was conceived and set up in 2009 by the
then UPA government under the ages of the Planning Commission. It was given a
statutory status by the incumbent NDA government in 2016.
The RBI founded the National Payments Corporation
of India (as a not for profit company) in 2008 to operate retail payments and
settlement systems in India. The NPCI developed a Unified Payments Interface
(UPI) to facilitate instant digital settlement of interbank peer to peer (P2P) and
Person to Merchant (P2M) payments. UPI is an Aadhar enabled mobile based interface,
available for free to all the citizens and merchants in India. NPCI also
developed the BHIM mobile App and Bharat Bill payment system.
This makes the Indian digital payment
infrastructure, one of the best in the world. Millions of small and marginal
merchants make billions of UPI transactions, to transform the Indian economy
from a cash driven economy to a digital banking society.
NPCI established the National Automated Clearing House
(NACH) to integrate all regional electronic clearing services into one national
payment system.
NPCI has also enabled a national electronic
toll collection through FASTag; National Financial Switch (Network of shared
ATMs); RuPay Card, IMPS and Bharat QR etc.,
NPCI was conceived and established in 2008
during the UPA government. However it has taken a lot of new initiatives under the incumbent
NDA government.
The Congress government led by P. V. Narasimha
Rao, operationalized National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) as an
autonomous agency in 1995 to build and manage the network of national highways
in India.
The NDA-1 government led by A. B. Vajpayee
assigned the task of implementing the National Highways Development Project (NHDP)
to NHAI in 2000. NHAI has undertaken and executed several key projects to
remarkably improve the interstate surface transport ecosystem in the country.
Golden Quadrilateral (20012012), an ambitious project of NHAI under NHDP has
become the backbone of national trade & commerce. Besides, NHAI has
commissioned North South and East West corridor projects to connect major
Indian cities.
NHAI model has inspired most state governments
to undertake major highway and express projects in public and private sector to
improve road infrastructure and intra state and interstate connectivity.
Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO, established
1969) and Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO, established 1958)
have been two core institutions to make India a major player in the global space and
defense technology arena.
ISRO has placed India in the top 5 countries in
terms of space capabilities. The commercial satellite launch capabilities of
ISRO are now recognized world over. The indigenous GPS tracking system GAGAN,
developed by ISRO, has put India in the global elite club.
DRDO has developed a potent nuclear deterrent to
safeguard geopolitical interests of India, which is surrounded by rather hostile
neighbors. DRDO is a key functionary in the plan to make India self-reliant in
defense production and technology. DRDO has also done remarkable development work
in the field of chemical engineering and medical science.
BrahMos, developed jointly by DRDO and
Mashinostroyeniya of Russia, is the fastest supersonic cruise missile in the
world. A hypersonic version of the missile is also under development.
BrahMos Aerospace, the JV between DRDO and Mashinostroyeniya,
was formed in 1998. It tested an Air-launched variant of BrahMos in 2012; which
was inducted in service in 2019. In 2016 India became a member of the Missile
Technology Control Regime(MTCR), enabling India to develop missiles jointly
with other members.
We may see India becoming a notable exporter of
missiles and missile technology in future.
The Department for Promotion of Industry and
Internal Trade (DPIIT), of Government of India has recently formed a Not for
Profit company named Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC).
ONDC shall be developing an open network for
e-commerce in India. It is expected to be an UPI equivalent for digital
commerce. The idea is to end the monopoly and manipulative practices of some
large ecommerce players and democratize the ecommerce market by providing an
equal access to all the participants. Like what UPI did with the payments, ONDC
could revolutionize the digital commerce market in India, providing huge
impetus to growth.
ONDC shall lead to democratization,
decentralization, digitalization and standardization of the entire digital
commerce value chain, increasing the efficiency and access manifold.
MNREGA (started in 2009) also deserves special
mention in this context. The rural employment scheme has provided one of the
best templates for implementing social security and uniform basic income (UBI) in
the country. It is widely recognized that this program has saved millions of families
in distress, especially during the periods of crisis such as drought, pandemic,
cyclone etc. In the past one decade, the program has been admirably used to
build rural assets like roads, water bodies, schools, health centers, etc.
About the constraints, I shall discuss in a
later post.
