View: Viksit Bharat's key element will be a strong middleware

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Viksit Bharat' conjures up discussions on economic definitions and terminologies, with focus on GDP. Using the current World Bank per capita nominal gross national income threshold of $13,845, a $22-trillion Indian economy will deliver a 'Viksit Bharat' for the projected 1.6-billion peak population.

Much of the discourse today is on whether attaining the $22-trillion mark is an evidence-led projection or not. Sometimes, an optimistic view of this economic trajectory is brushed away as a leap of faith.

In fact, the journey of our Amrit Kaal is better characterised as reimagination. It is important to go beyond GDP-centricity and consider how India's governance delivery will fundamentally transmogrify.

Prime minister Narendra Modi envisioned the period between the modern nation state India at 75 and India at 100 as Amrit Kaal. In December 2021, the development of a blueprint aimed at transforming India into a developed nation was initiated.

Ten secretarial-level groups were tasked with creating sector-specific visions. They covered areas such as agriculture, commerce and industry, finance and economy, foreign affairs, governance, infrastructure, security, among others. The NITI Aayog is now crafting a vision document outlining the necessary institutional and structural changes required to achieve the goal of a developed India by 2047.

A «now vs then» picture is bound to be stark.

This metamorphosis, shaping up little over two decades, will undoubtedly involve orbital changes in the national capacities and projection. But it is important to see this capacity enhancement as a continuous and gradual process, rather than use the binary lens of hitting a GDP number. The keyword that best embodies this process, which is