Happy New Year! I wonder if one can say Happy New Decade too as the last three years became lost in the black hole of the pandemic. A new year is a good time to examine ourselves, whether as individuals or even as a nation. People also make resolutions at the start of the year. However, most people quit them by January 18, also known as quitter’s day, making it a somewhat pointless exercise. However, what does help is examining one’s purpose from time to time, and the new year is a perfect time to do so. So, how did your life go last year? More importantly, where do you see it or want it to be going next year? This will depend on something that all of us need to go through life – a purpose. For a life without purpose, is no life at all. A purpose is what gives you a roadmap of what should do in life, whether in the next week, year or decade.
Similarly, a good way to figure out what India should do in the next year or decade will come from this question: What is India’s purpose in the world? That will give us what to focus on in the next decade.
Purpose for an individual answers questions like why are we here? Purpose for a nation answers questions like why does this country exist?
While we can endlessly debate what is or should be India’s purpose, here is good simple way to put it: India’s purpose is to be one of the leading nations of the world. India, housing one-sixth of humanity, will achieve this by giving its people a dignified standard of living in a peaceful society, where people have an opportunity to grow and freedom to live their life the way they want.
To become a leading nation, a country needs four things in order – high income economy, strong defence and technology, moral high ground and thought leadership. Here’s how you get them:
- A high income economy comes from money, and lots and lots of money. Only rich countries are inspire awe and respect. The more affluent India becomes, the more our buying power in this world. This in turn will attract companies from all over the world who will be forced to take us seriously. Going on about our great heritage, historical sites, culture, music, movies, food – and other wonderful things counted as soft power only goes so far. Power, by definition, has to be hard for it to matter. We must have the economic growth agenda as our number one national priority and almost every policy we make has to stem from it.
- Strong Defence and technology sectors – Being rich is not enough. A nation must also have strong defence and technology sectors to count. A strong defence isn’t just about solider morale, ‘josh’ or patriotism. It is about resources, advanced weaponry and world-beating tech that makes anyone in the world think twice before taking us on. Similarly, a nation must have strength in technology-based industries – software (which we somewhat do), hardware and pharma for instance. This requires a scientific and innovation loving mindset, not to mention a lot of money (another reason to be rich). We as Indians must support a cutting edge defense industry as well as other technology driven sectors.
- Moral high ground – Notice around you, countries with maximum say in this world tend to be democratic, secular, open-minded, freedom-loving, individual-respecting nations. Whether it is the USA or most of Europe, they have disproportionate say in this world due to this moral high ground. India has the potential to have a high moral ground too. We are a democracy and among the most diverse nations on the planet. However, if due to our politics, or in the intoxication of our rising affluence we turn into a divided lot or lose some of our democratic and free speech tenets, it will be hard to become one of the truly respected nations in the world. This is extremely important. We will crumble if we impose one type of culture, religion or language over the others. We won’t get too far if we take away the freedoms that our forefathers laid their lives for. India must get rich while maintaining democracy, individual freedoms and a respect for diversity. It’s frankly un-Indian to do so otherwise.
- Thought leadership – A nation may have money, defence, technology, democracy and freedoms, but what truly distinguishes a leading nation is thought leadership. It’s great to take care of our own people, but what do we have to offer to the world? Are we taking the lead in solving the pressing global issues – climate change, pollution, current violent conflicts or the energy crisis? Thought leadership is the final step we will need to become a leading force in the world.
Achieving the four items above is a tall order, but not impossible. It won’t be easy, but if all us Indians come together and put our minds to it, we can achieve the above in the next few decades. However, if we get lost in petty issues, talk about irrelevant stuff or waste our time on social media , we will fail. If we fight within ourselves, or impose our own community, culture and values over others, we will fail. It’s easy to mess this up. It will make no difference to the world if India remains a low-income, also-ran country. It is only for us to make our presence felt in this world, by making our economy, defence, technology, moral fabric and thought leadership strong. That, and only that, should be India and India’s purpose in the coming decade. Happy New Year!