My Vision of INDIA in 2025 !!

Dr. A P J Abdul Kalam once said, “A vision is not a project report or a plan target. It is an articulation of the desired end results in broader terms.” Same applies to my vision of INDIA in 2025.

It is generally said that 19th Century belonged to Europe and 20th Century to the United States. But the 21st Century is certainly ours.

India with more than a billion people is the largest democracy in the world. It has the biggest number of people with franchise rights and the largest number of political parties. It’s the only country in world with so much diversity in its cultures, religion, languages, castes, manners, local histories, nationalities and identities.

Since its independence, India has transformed a lot. Poverty has fallen significantly, life expectancy has increased, the infant mortality rate has dropped and literacy has risen both among men and women. The economy of the country has also risen, foreign exchange reserves have increased and external debt has declined.

We have done a lot, we could do more and we will have to do more. Now come out of the gloom and guilt ridden India and imagine the India of 2025. We need to see beyond the limits of the immediate past to rediscover the greatness that is India.

India can be a superpower by 2025 but it must be realized that visualizing the future could be a very difficult task. Twenty five years ago, there was no WTO, no European Union, no AIDS, no laptop, no Internet, no mobile phone, and so on. Yet, all of them dominate our lives today. No one would have predicted any of these 25 years ago. Therefore, it is difficult to guess as to what India will be in 2025.

Despite this, predictions have been made about India’s future.

India 2025 will be bustling with energy, entrepreneurship and innovation. The country’s 1.35 billion people will be better fed, dressed and housed, taller and healthier, more educated and longer living. Illiteracy and all major contagious diseases will have disappeared. School enrolment from age 6 to 14 will near 100 per cent and drop out rates will fall to less than one in twenty.

India will be much more integrated with the global economy and will be a major player in terms of trade, technology and investment. Rising levels of education, employment and income will help stabilize India’s internal security and social environment. A united and prosperous India will be far less vulnerable to external security threats. India in 2025 will be characterized by a better-educated electorate and more transparent, accountable, efficient and decentralized government.

A second productivity revolution will take place in Indian agriculture that will generate abundant employment opportunities for the rural workforce. These in turn will stimulate demand for consumer goods and services, giving a boost to the urban economy and the informal sector as well as rapid expansion of the services sector.

We have made remarkable achievements in information technology. In 2008, 35 per cent of our exports were based on software. By 2025, it’s expected that India will build on this platform and develop the next generation IT industry, which will be based on not just providing routine services and jobs but based on strong, new IT products. By 2025, India will earn the reputation of a country, which has used IT not only for creating wealth but also for a meaningful social transformation.

There will be no “reservation”, no subsidiary, no “special privilege” and no discount, on the basis of region, religion, profession and community. There will be self-respect and Pride for each individual. India 2025 must be one in which all levels and sections of the population and all parts of the country march forward together towards a more secure and prosperous future with only one caste (Brotherhood) and one religion (Humanity), across the length and breadth of the country.

Computerization of education will dramatically improve the quality of instruction and the pace of learning and enable tens of thousands more students to opt for affordable higher education. Computerization in government will streamline procedures and response times to a degree unimaginable now.

In the strategic areas of space, defence and atomic energy, we will achieve many milestones. Our nuclear scientists have a dream to provide 20,000 megawatts of nuclear power by 2025, making India a leading nation in the use of nuclear energy. India is expected to fulfill this mission and that too with the distinctive stamp of our own technology.

The increasingly congested urban traffic will be motorized as never before. And cars will be considered essential for most middle class families. City roads and rural highways will improve substantially in number, capacity and quality. Cell phones, computers and the Internet will invade every aspect of life and every corner of the country.

By 2025 there will be a major shift in our energy consumption pattern. Non-renewable sources of energy will get a new thrust. The use of bio-fuels will not only reduce our dependence on import of oil but will also bring the benefits of environment, ecology and employment.

All this and more will happen in India by 2025. Sounds impossible? Yes, it does.

No it's not. The future generations can do it. The whole world is shouting at us: 'just do it.' Yesterday is gone and since then we have traveled a lot; covered a lot of distance, but still there are miles to go. Building a nation is not easy. We must all work together to transform our ‘developing India’ into a ‘developed India’, and the revolution required for this effort must start in our minds. We have to “learn from our past and focus on future”. Instead of pulling each other, let’s grow together…let’s be a “Team India” and build the India of 2025.