Successive prime ministers of India have used their Independence Day speech to outline the successes of their respective governments and lay out challenges.
In the case of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, his speeches have not only featured important policy announcements, like the Swachh Bharat Mission launched by his first speech from the ramparts of the Red Fort in 2014, but also his government’s vision for the economy and plans to realize it.
His address on Saturday had all those elements. Modi unveiled a seven-point agenda to speed up India’s efforts to become a developed country, or Viksit Bharat, by 2047.
The “sapta dhaara”—or seven streams—he named to achieve that goal are apparently inspired by the “sapta Sindhu,” a reference to seven ancient rivers whose waters held the vital energy for prosperity, as legend has it, among other bounties.
The streams now in focus are the domestic manufacturing sector, agriculture and food processing, technology, Gati Shakti—or infrastructure for logistics—self-reliance in defence, India’s green and blue economies, and last but not least, the country’s soft power.
This emphasis is not new, with some of these areas of focus having been outlined earlier too.
The ‘Make in India’ programme, for instance, is now etched in the policy framework as part of an ambition to turn the country into a factory for the world.
Or, for that matter, the Gati Shakti initiative launched earlier to overhaul India’s creaky logistics infrastructure—from ports to airports and roads to highways—so that faster moving goods can help manufacturers compete in all accessible markets.
While beginnings have already been made in all seven endeavours, this streamlined list of the Modi government’s priorities hints at which way public funds will flow in the years ahead. It is a timely exercise.
As open markets like America’s begin to retreat behind tariff walls and globalization suffers geopolitical reversals, India must rely on itself for key enablers of its economic emergence, especially now that denial regimes are taking shape in plain sight.
The same logic applies to national security and autonomy amid US-China rivalry that could raise the costs of neutrality. Today’s imperatives explain other streams as well. In technology and innovation, India’s stakes are high as these increasingly underpin value generation.
All this must go with climate action, so the green use of clean energy and blue-sky hunt for new resources assume priority too. As for soft power, broadly defined as global influence exerted by everything other than the force of arms, the concept has been gaining salience as a policy aim.
In India’s case, the global promotion of yoga is often cited as an example. Given the fuzzy nature of soft power, though, how amenable it is to a centralized strategy tends to split opinion.
Other notable initiatives highlighted by Modi include a drive to train 10 million youth in artificial intelligence (AI) and a plan to provide free online coaching for students. The former is aligned with a larger push for AI diffusion while the latter aims to widen access to career paths opened up by competitive exams.
Both seem like a response to last month’s student protests. But the long-term aim must be to improve our formal education system. Third-party coaching should not be required at all.
Broadly speaking, all seven streams would need tributaries of human talent for them to sparkle, with or without the aid of AI. Education, thus, has a vital role to play.