Like the home-grown TATAs and Mahindras, India needs an aggressively ambitious Reliance, except for their predatory style in the domestic market, which instead, could be deployed overseas.

We have many globally-known and growing desi brands such as Biocon, Sun Pharma, Bharat Biotec, TCS, Infosys, and Wipro among several others.

Two issues that all of them ought to assuredly focus on:

1. Learning and improving on the advanced technologies
2. Striving for excellence, with assured quality in product and services

When the twain meets the business ethics with innovation, Indians will rule the roost, beating everyone hollow. A sense of pride and ownership can only propel such ambitions minus the ideological sentiments.

National priorities: collective aspirations

What all does it take to be a strong and powerful nation? What are the central ideas that have shaped modern nations? A rundown of such countries, perceived to be in that category can help us dissect the characteristics that made them achieve this stature.

A glance over the developed countries like Japan, the US, the UK, France, Germany, China, Israel, and Italy shows that each of them took immense pride in their rich past and continued with their cultural traditions even while pursuing with the modern lifestyles.

India has been a great civilization as well-documented in history. This vast sub-continent has a rich culture, art, scientific temperament, innovative ideas ahead of the times, disciplined lifestyles, literature, music and dance, brave warriors, thoughtful leaders and statesmen.

Economy

A country that is developed economically commands respect as it is not only self-reliant but can extend its helping hands to other countries with its surplus. A strong GDP and GNP along with a healthy Individual Income Index would help the country surge ahead strongly.

The ‘Make in India’ campaign is aimed at manufacturing for the world and not for India. Export-oriented economic and trade strategy would help. Ease of doing business would invite large investments from the domestic players as well as the global MNCs, and large-scale reforms would help businesses grow.

Technology, R&D and IPR

There are four reasons for that stem the technological tide:

1. Lack of patent culture in India
2. Poor quality of research in universities and technical institutions
3. Higher academia is focused more on churning out degree holders and job placements; not fostering an ecosystem for meaningful research
4. Absence of local ecosystem for cutting-edge R&D

Information and Communication Technology has been transforming not just people’s lives but governance as well, and with innovative ideas, entrepreneurship thrives. Digital India coupled with the fast-spreading startup culture of entrepreneurship has been pushing Indian dreams to the forefront today.

Having established India’s IT prowess globally, Indian IT companies are graduating fast to patent software products by using the latest technologies.

Swachh Bharat, Make in India, Startup India, Digital India, One India, AatmaNirbhar Bharat, India First etc are the right slogans and thoughtful schemes that need to move beyond rhetoric to help the Indian Dream.

Reimagining a sustainable and resilient future

The career-focused and environment caring millennial dream of a world in which businesses, society, and the government put people ahead of profits and prioritise environmental sustainability, diversity and inclusion, and income equality.

With greater optimism about the environment and ecology, a strong commitment to financial responsibility and savings, India’s youth, like their ilk the world over, with less reservation, trying out newer and even unconventional ideas and acting independently.

India is the global market of the future

When a market offers over a billion aspiring consumers, who are skilled and adaptive, countries and companies are designing and producing products and solutions, solely to capture and/or have a larger pie of this huge market. Consider this:

1. Over 500 million internet subscribers
2. Over 1,200 million mobile phone users
3. Over 500 million broadband connections
4. Another 900 million people are still to be connected
5. 90 percent of the internet users access the internet on their mobile phones, with the cheapest average 4G rate, which has penetrated 88 percent across India, with 277 million rural users

Since most Indians access the internet on their smartphones, it has compelled global technology companies to formulate a mobile-first strategy for the market. National Digital Communication policy will further help to expand India’s digital footprint, which will propel the country to be a $1 trillion economy.

India’s soft power

Yoga is India’s biggest export today as a global brand. India does have tremendous potential to export such verities of beautiful and unique indigenous skills, art, music and dance (classical and folk), cinema, handloom, literature, Unani/Ayurveda medicines, food, martial arts, and games.

A concerted centralised effort planned thoughtfully could help in marketing all such things Indian, across the globe. Spreading of a country’s soft power across the globe could only market the brand stronger and effective.

Government of India must have a dedicated Ministry for selling the Indian Dream to the world and the vast Indian Diaspora, conferring them selectively as India’s Cultural Ambassadors to sell Indian Dreams to the world.

Youth power

India’s huge population that was once perceived as an albatross has emerged as its biggest strength. But the demographic dividends would accrue only when the overwhelmingly young population, providing the rich human capital, is empowered and cultivated appropriately.

India, that is Bharat, is a nation and a culture, a way of life, which is beyond any boundary because its faith teaches liberty, equality and fraternity…espousing Vasudhaiva Kutambakam.

An overarching sense of pride and ownership with responsible citizenry would propel the Indian Dream forward and the Indian youth aspires for it unabashedly.