Unparalleled innovation in India: Race to the top
Why the emergence of Bharat under Modi’s leadership is a story to reckon with
It was India’s 75th independence anniversary only about 6 weeks ago when Prime Minister announced from the Red Fort, “We have to make India a global center of research and innovation in this Amrit Kaal.” Did Modi have divine power, an intuition, a firm belief in his policies, and/ or an inside track with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) that India will jump from 46th place in 2021 to 40th in 2022? Piyush Goyal, the Minister of commerce and industry Tweeted (given below) and rightfully touted that India made a huge jump from 81 in 2015 to 40 in 2022. He proudly presented the accomplishments of the Modi team coming into power in 2014. At this rate of accelerated innovation, India should be in the top 10 no later than 2030.
India Innovating Like Never Before!
India climbs to the 40th rank in the Global Innovation Index of @WIPO, a huge leap of 41 places in 7 years.
The steady rise testifies that India under the leadership of PM @NarendraModi ji is rapidly emerging as the global innovation hub. pic.twitter.com/pltqW8kdUh
— Piyush Goyal (@PiyushGoyal) September 29, 2022
According to WIPO, “India continues to lead the world in ICT (information and communication) services exports and holds top rankings in other indicators, including venture capital receipt value, finance for start-ups and scale-ups, graduates in science and engineering, labor productivity growth and domestic industry diversification.” This should make every Indian proud and a path forward for India becoming a “developed country’ by 2047, Modi’s vision announced from the Red Fort.
Modi is not a man of just words but action; he does what he says. Since his speech, India is now the 5th largest economy moving its former colonial masters to the 6th place. If Churchill was living today, he would be very restless and not only despised and plundered India, but he also ”hated Indians” and considered them “a beastly people with a beastly religion.” Churchill, in my view, is not a hero but a war criminal who should be tried posthumously for the atrocities such as his refusal to direct resources during the cyclone and floods that hit Bengal in 1942 famine killing nearly 3 million people[1].
The Make in India initiative launched in 2014 is making the country a hub for manufacturing. Today, India’s automobile and aviation sectors to defence and railway are slashing imports making India self-reliant and thus a favorable balance of trade. For example, the development of the Tejas Light combat aircraft has been a huge success. Reportedly, the total defence exports in 2021-22 stood at Rs 12,815 crore while India exported military hardware worth Rs.42,499 crore from 2018-19. The list of achievements under Make in India in all sectors is endless[2]. On the space front, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) is now one of the six largest space agencies in the world with one of the largest fleets of communication satellites (INSAT) and remote sensing (IRS) satellites, that cater to the ever-growing demand for fast and reliable communication and earth observation respectively.
A country of nearly 1.3 billion people had its own Covid vaccine, an unimaginable feat of innovation by any standards. Because of the foresightedness and strong encouragement of Modi, 98% of adults have received at least one dose of the Covid vaccine, while 90% have been fully vaccinated. India crossed 2 billion Covid jabs in July 2022, second to none other than China and now efforts are underway in India to give booster shots[3]. India also exported and/ or gifted over 20 million vaccines as a part of vaccine diplomacy to the countries in need.
I have been in the U.S. since 1978 but never before India was respected in Washington as much. For example, a grand welcome accorded to India’s External Affairs Minister Jaishankar at the Pentagon was perhaps the historic first[4]. India today stands tall in all capitols around the globe so much so that there is a strong push that the Permanent Members of the United Nations be increased and India deserves to be one of them. I surmise it is around the corner for India to achieve her due place in the U.N.
What India was just about a decade ago and it is today is a story of change and transformation, vision and to-do attitude, dare to dream and policies and practice, political will and nationalism, and most of all building trust and delivering on the promises.
The readers may not agree but innovation is not just what WIPO seeks to define and monitor, but at the most basic level in India’s context, it includes Modi’s visionary initiatives such as Swachh Bharat, Jan Dhan Yojana, and more recently Har Ghar Jhanda. Each of these innovative ideas was a grass root effort to mobilize and connect India’s people with the ground reality. What is the impact? New India is much cleaner with increased awareness about cleanliness, every person has a bank account and thus direct access to any government grant/ subsidy, and millions of Indian flags were hoisted all across India
India is not only in the race to the top to be among the developed nations, but the strong-willed people of India supporting the Modi team will make it happen. WIPO’s innovation index should find India among the top ten by 2030 and India may be inching to become the world’s third-largest economy by then. More importantly, the emergence of Bharat under Modi’s leadership is a story to reckon with. Historians may be writing someday that India did not gain her true independence until the ordinary Indians like the Chaiwala Narendra Modi as Prime Minister and the first tribal woman, Droupadi Murmu, as the President of India are in charge of democratic and secular India.
Note:
1. Text in Blue points to additional data on the topic.
2. The views expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of PGurus.
Reference:
[1] Churchill’s legacy leaves Indians questioning his hero status – Jul 21, 2020, BBC
[2] Make in India achievements till date – Aug 31, 2021, The Story India
[3] Covid vaccine: India becomes second country to cross two billion Covid jabs – Jul 18, 2022, BBC
[4] Video: S Jaishankar Gets A Grand Welcome At Pentagon – Sep 27, 2022, NDTV
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