Develop human resources for a Viksit Bharat by 2047
It was in 1867 under the British Raj that India adopted a fiscal year starting 1 April, when James Wilson was finance minister. Not only was the date arbitrary, so was annual accounting, drawn as it was from agriculture. Although other institutions traceable to early farming—like patriarchy—have been challenged, the idea of an annual reckoner has endured for centuries with little resistance.
Even so, both longer and shorter cycles have had advocates. Stints to elected office span half a decade for the same reason that central planners came up with five-year plans: It’s seen as the least time it takes to make a big difference. Market-oriented or not, an economy’s path is guided by variables that can take as long as seven years to vary—and adjust.
Similar logic backs business gurus who insist a CEO needs a span of many years for anything more than a tactical strategy to play out. Hence the Hindi term “quarter se quarter tak," a snarky reference to market pressure on companies for shiny quarterly results. Long horizons matter—which is why the Viksit Bharat goal set by Prime Minister Narendra Modi assumes significance.
It focuses Indian minds on how India can best emerge as a developed country by 2047 to mark a century of freedom. As finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said at a Mint summit on Saturday, we expect to have a billion citizens in the middle-income bracket by then. Our labour market, meanwhile, has been under debate for the pivotal role it will be expected to play, one way or another.
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