What you would be after 5 years largely depends on the ‘books’ you read, the ‘people’ you spend time with, the ‘habits’ you adopt, the ‘food’ you eat, and the ‘conversations’ you engage. In a nutshell, what you are and what you would be depends on your right decisions.
The right decisions not only make a difference in the life of an individual, but the same is applicable for society and country. Society and country can be prosperous only if the right set of decisions or priorities are set. Like any other country, India has also its own set of problems like Poverty, Corruption, Unemployment, Education system, pollution, and uneven growth. The solution lies in action in the right direction.
Let me share five mega-trends which gives hope that as a country, India is in the right direction.
1. Policy focused on large Industries:
India’s manufacturing sector contributes close to 17% of GDP. To address huge problem of unemployment and underemployment, there is no better option than focus on growth of manufacturing sector. To push manufacturing output, Government of India has announced Production Linked Incentive Scheme worth $27 Billion for 14 Industries.
Why is this significant? They say “You can’t get different results by doing the same action every time”. Since independence, Government policies where pro Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) and rightly so. In the closed economy, this kind of policy tilt works well, but once you are part of global trade, advanced technology plays a very important role in competing. Let’s say a company based in United States wants to buy some goods; thus that company has option of choosing best supplier from more than 200-odd countries from where company would get cheapest and best quality product. So Indian supplier would need to beat 200 competing countries to be able to win the contract. Herculean task. SMEs ability to adopt latest technology is limited because of their size/limited revenue. Many countries have helped home-grown companies to become big so that those companies do R&D and bring latest technology in manufacturing. This latest/high-end technology is supposed to percolate down to smaller industries and in Toto, it’s beneficial to overall country. Classic examples of this approach are South Korean companies like Samsung, LG and Hyundai.
Because of many compulsions, Indian Government never supported large scale Industries but looking at need of the hour, now finally Government has decided to take path of large Industry led growth model which is significant change from earlier policy. Production linked Incentive (PLI) scheme is applicable to 14 sectors where companies need to investment minimum threshold to be eligible for scheme and there is opportunity of 4%-6% incentive on incremental sales. The best part is that the PLI scheme seems to be a huge success looking at the participation levels of all mega companies.
2. Export Focus:
Almost all prosperous countries are very strong on exports. Though 16% of humanity lives in India but in just a couple of decades back, Indian share in global exports used to be less than 0.5%. In last financial year, Export grown by whopping 40% leading to achievement of $418 billion worth of merchandise export. Thanks to robust exports, the export share rose to 1.9%. Last year’s export performance is significant because between 2012 to 2020 the export growth was stagnant. Export constitutes approx. one fifth of Indian economy; thus exponential export growth obviously helps overall economy. India has managed to export $1.5 billion dollars in arms exports, which is 6 times more than what it used to be 7 years back. Recently, India signed a $375 million deal to export the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile to the Philippines which proves India’s growing capability in cutting edge technology. Electronic manufacturing capability is another highlight which is proved by Mobile phone exports from India which increased to $5.5 Billion in FY2022, registering 75% growth. More than the figures, what is important is that people are talking about exports, which is compelling media to give space to export-related news.
India has emerged as the 3rd largest country in the space of start-ups. In the first week of May 2022, India registered its 100th unicorn. The kind of enthusiasm young India’s are showing towards entrepreneurship is incredible. MNCs are surprised to note that despite them offering top dollar to final year students studying in India’s premier educational Institute, students are not willing to join them but opting for starting something of their own. This is a big shift in a country where news of lakhs of people applying for few hundred clerical jobs opting in Government sector used to be flooded.
To promote entrepreneurship, Government of India established Micro Units Development & Refinance Agency Ltd (MUDRA) where people can take loan up to INR 1 Million ( $13,000). In last 7 years more than 340 Million Indian’s took this loan and best part is that 68% of them are women.
The kind of euphoria “Shank Tank” has created in India is unbelievable.
4. Connectivity:
The world has been greatly benefited by the movement of goods, people, and ideas; thus better connectivity is most important for prosperity. India is constructing almost 10,000 km of highways every year. Air traffic has almost doubled in the last 5 years. Thanks to one of the cheapest internet cost in India (approx. $0.1 per GB), the per-user internet consumption has touched 16 GB in a month, which is double that of developed countries. Well-traveled and well-informed Indians would demand more growth-oriented policies from the government, which is crucial for prosperity.
5. Digital Adoption:
As per Government sources, India’s digital economy was of the size of 200 billion in 2017 and expected to cross $800 by 2025 at current prices resulting in share of the digital economy jumping from 8 per cent in 2017 to 18% percent in 2025. Remarkable achievement by a country where the adult literacy rate is still below 80%. India leads digital payment in the world. In 2021, India made 48.6 billion real-time payments beating China, which is in second place, with 18.5 billion real-time transactions.
More than 1 billion Indians got digital Covid vaccination certificates, while citizens of most developed countries got hand-written Covid vaccination certificates.
Indian’s digital adoption would immensely help start-ups like Practo, which connects doctor and patient on it’s platform. Did you know grocery delivery apps are still unheard of in many developed countries?
Charles Dickens once said that “the most important thing to be successful is to stop saying ‘I Wish’ and start saying ‘I Will’.
India has started saying ‘I Will’. Now it’s up to you to live in the ‘Wish’ or ‘Will’ world.
If you are convinced with Mega trends, please share this article with your family and friends. Awareness is key to progressive society and country.
Jai Hind!
Manoj Tripathi
(Author of bestselling book “Power of Ignored Skills”)
Disclaimer: The views mentioned in the article are personal. The purpose is not to hurt the sentiments of any cast, creed or group of people. Data is an approximation to help readers understand the context.
