Digital has a pivotal role to play in making India a developed country by 2047

India will be 100 years of free and independent country in 2047.  In his Independence Day speech from Red Fort, Prime Minister Shri Narender Modi said that the trinity of Demographics, Democracy and Diversity has the ability to make India a developed country in next 25 years.

Very aptly so, demography gives India the power of being one of the largest global consumer markets that is not just appealing the budding entrepreneurs and disruptors within the country but also inviting global giants to increase their strategic participation through investments and setting up of their manufacturing, retail, and other functions in the country.  By 2047, India is expected to cross 1.6 billion in population.  A study of ADB predicts that by 2050, India will have over a billion workforce and an equal number of affluent class population with the rapid expansion of middle class.

Similarly, democracy brings in the freedom of thoughts and expressions.  This freedom and empowerment are key enabler in aiding out of the box thinking that will disrupt the societies.  With India’s reputation and stature on the rise globally, her role on the global arena is becoming critical.  The innovations and disruptions that will sprout because of the empowerment through democracy will not only impact India but also have global ramifications.

The very peculiar diversity of India again adds to its strengths.  The unity and collaboration between diverse origins, cultures, religions, and communities brings in an inherent strength to understand various global economies and societies.  This brings a strong delight factor unique to India that can top its innovations, products, and services with a global appeal.

While all this looks so great and appealing, it’s not easy to integrate and stitch all this together to create synergies.  That is where digital will come into the play and create unparallel and unheard synergies between these three key strengths of India. Digital infrastructure and platforms that have already started bringing transformational changes in the country will further power and strengthen each and every element of this diverse society with creation of wealth becoming easy through enhanced communication, knowledge sharing and sharing of resources.  We have already seen how digital technologies are positively impacting societies and the economies. Of course, these need to evolve to take care of the undesired pollutants emerging on the digital arena like fakes, frauds and misinformation.

All these, when topped with the aspirations of Indians powered by skilling, education, empowerment and motivation from the leadership is leading towards breaking the imaginary barriers and thinking the unthinkable. These dreams and desires of living beyond a normal routine life and making meaningful contributions across the globe is resulting in path breaking innovations, creation of scalable startups and incubation of disruptive ideas.  This is again all being enabled by the digital technologies.

The government is consciously framing policies and creating an environment to build a thriving digital inclusive infrastructure.  Be it Aadhar, creation of UPI or now the development of ONDC platform, these have a universal appeal. We have already seen multiple countries now accepting UPI payments making India a truly first global digital currency provider.

The digital technologies are not just going to keep all the abilities and strengths of the country stitched together, but also integrate them like never before creating unimaginable synergies that will result in latent opportunities impacting billions of lives.

The onus is on the digital ecosystem to become an active partner of this vision and start integrating all the unique abilities of India to see it as a developed nation by 2047 or may be before.  Let’s all drive this inclusive 6d formula.