If India wants to earn the status of a developed country by 2047, as envisioned by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, it will have to cross many hurdles to make the dream a reality. In economic terms, it effectively means that India will henceforth have to grow by a minimum of seven per cent till 2047 and ensure that the population growth rate remains lower than the GDP growth rate. So far, no country in the world has been able to maintain such a high growth rate for a long period of time. Thus, many economists have termed the idea unrealistic and have claimed that like the promises to double farmers’ income by 2022, the promise to raise industrial production to at least 25 percent of GDP and make India a five trillion dollar economy by 2024 will remain unfulfilled dreams.
However, there are some positive indicators which are encouraging the nation to chase this dream. For example, India used to be considered an extremely low-income state as the per capita daily income of its populace was merely $ 2.15. It has now risen to $ 3.65 (Rs. 90), which is no mean achievement. Now the challenge before the country is to take the per capita daily income to $ 6.85 to be considered as one among the high income nations. If the Indian economy can maintain its growth since the pandemic, then, the dream of being considered a developed country may be attainable. Similarly, India has made remarkable progress in human development. India’s vast human resource sector gives it an advantage in the global economy. If adequate focus is paid to this sector, India will become one of the top nations in the world as the country is full of potential.
India’s greatest challenge however, will be to register growth in both the agricultural and manufacturing sectors. It should be mentioned here that at present 53 per cent of the country’s GDP comes from the service sector, which is an increase of 16 per cent, while the contribution from the agriculture sector has contracted by 17 per cent. Not very long ago, this sector used to form 38 per cent of GDP. The contribution of the industrial sector is also going down, which has increased India’s reliance on tertiary sectors, rather than primary or secondary sectors. These two sectors should be revived at the earliest not only to end over-dependence on the service sector, but also to strengthen the economy as a whole.
It is unwise to completely disregard the call for development by the Prime Minister by focusing only on the obstacles. Since Independence, India’s journey towards becoming a developed country has gone through many ups and downs. Still, India has managed to become the fastest growing economy even as the world faces one of the gravest crises since the Second World War. The dream of a developed India is a worthy goal and one must not immediately form negative notions but rather challenge one another to make Developed India a reality by 2047.
