India on its way to attaining the world’s next superpower status
I WAS fortunate to have visited India a couple of times in the mid ’90s and mid-2000.
From the cloying humanity and dabbawallahs of Bombay to the go-to bars of Goa, the unashamed beauty of Bangalore and the serene waters of Kerela to the hustle and bustle of Delhi and the golden dunes of Rajasthan, it was an assault on the senses, but always imbued with being incorrigibly retrograde and immobilised in amber.
But not anymore, for under the stewardship of the charismatic statesman Narendra Modi, now in his second term, it is fast becoming touted as one of the superpowers of the world.
It is there for all to see as I quote from a recent Morgan Stanley Research Report. In the past three years, unlike any of India’s previous leaders, Modi did not borrow one dollar from the World Bank. It is anticipated that in the next 10 years India’s GDP will surpass $1 trillion (about R14.3 trillion). Forbes Magazine declared that India is to rise manifoldly only because of Modi.
In a recent economic growth report of 137 countries, India moved up 31 places and is now ranked 40th. It has never reached such a spot since independence. The potential to become a superpower can be attributed to several indicators, the primary ones being its strategic demographics and a rapidly expanding army and economy.
Its emblematic tentacles can exert great pressure on its neighbours. It is strategically placed in a commanding position in the Afro-Asian sea trade route of the Indian Ocean.
While Indians are buying cars and crude oil like never before, the economy is the world’s third largest in terms of GDP after the US and China. Apama Pandes’s book Making India Great – The Promise of a Reluctant Super Global Power, makes for compelling reading.
Modi’s most notable reforms to date include overhauling the insolvency and bankruptcy code and the repeal of labour laws, replacing 29 disparate laws.
The marketing of agri-produce has been revamped under the Essential Commodities Act. The sectors of defence, civil aviation, railways, mining and e-commerce, GST and the drop in corporate profit tax to 17% for new firms and 25% for others are important.
India is a country with many distinct pursuits, vastly different convictions and widely divergent customs and viewpoints.
There is a need to understand its democracy, the defence of its secular policies, the removal of inequalities to class, caste and gender and their pursuit of sub-continental peace. Modi’s crowning glory could be achieving eventual peace with Pakistan.
Perhaps British historian and philosopher Arnold Toynbee summed it up best when he proclaimed the following: “It is already becoming clear that a chapter which had a Western beginning will have to have an Indian ending, if it is not to end in the self-destruction of the human race.
“At this supremely dangerous moment in history, the only way of salvation for humankind is the Indian way.” Prophetic words from a man who has spent a lifetime studying civilisations.
I want to feel and experience that revolutionised, hip and upmarket India... that superpower and it will always be my swansong travel destination as I soon straddle the autumn years of my life.