These are some musings on the year ahead published in the January edition of ‘India Global Business’ magazine
by Manoj Ladwa, Founder & Publisher of India Inc.
The year 2014 marked a turning point in the India global story with the election of Narendra Modi as Prime Minister, who got to work instantly to lay out his grand vision for the country.
His travels around the world shaped the agenda for a new resurgent India that is no longer simply making the right noises but taking firm action to claim its rightful place on the world stage. President Obama, acknowledged the impression Modi had made on world leaders by quipping “He is an Action- Man” when greeting him at the ASEAN Summit in Myanmar.
This edition of ‘India Global Business’ presents a wrap-up of an extremely eventful year. It is pegged around one of the key initiatives of the new Indian government – the Digital India mission, which aims to digitise every section of Indian society and bring the rural hinterlands of the vast country on to the information highway.
This gigantic task needs some strong partnerships and alliances and that is where India’s strategic bond with the US will play a key role. After almost a decade of inertia, the US-India relationship has certainly received a fillip with Modi’s elevation, bringing about true impetus to former Indian PM Vajpayee’s statement describing the two great democracies as “natural allies”.
Modi and President Obama had committed to partner on the Digital India initiative during their meeting in September 2014. They spelt out the goal clearly in their joint statement as enhancing the country’s digital infrastructure, deploying e-governance and e-services, promoting industry collaboration, and digitally empowering India’s citizens. The US President welcomed India’s proposal to establish the Global Initiative of Academic Networks (GIAN, or Knowledge) under which India would invite and host up to 1,000 American academics each year to teach in centrally-recognised Indian universities.
Other such ambitious plans such as the Make In India drive and the rapid development of Smart Cities that were born in 2014 have also been encapsulated in our policy updates and top picks segments. We also look back at some of the big interviews that capture the optimism across the world over India’s new chapter in history.
The year 2015 marks a time for action on some of the broad strokes. All eyes will be on the forthcoming Union Budget in February (though Finance Minister Jaitley has of late been keen to downplay big bang reform expectations). India Inc. in any case has embarked on its own initiative to back up some of India’s ambitious programmes.
For instance, we plan to take this a step further and encourage much-needed debate and dialogue on how the 25 million strong global Indian community can plug into a rapidly digitising India.
As PM Modi has often said, the opportunities are infinite. Now is the time to click into them and make a real difference. Will this period mark yet another watershed in India’s development and engagement with the world? I certainly hope so.
