INDIA @ 2025: PERILS, PROMISES AND

PROSPECTS
Prelude:

The Chinese say, “A crisis is an opportunity riding the dangerous wind.” India finds herself at an
important juncture after a decade into the new millennium. The future holds both promises and
challenges. The way forward would undoubtedly be determined by the path paved by India’s leaders
and the way her people work towards achieving what’s best for the collective good. The Indian way
of working is indeed strange enough. We are industrious yet corrupt, loud-mouthed yet warm. We
are a collage of people of various languages, religions, castes, colour, creed yet we are bound
together by a common strand of nationality. We are the proud citizens of a country that is a
sovereign socialist secular democratic republic. Our socio-economic and political systems are still
reminiscent of our glorious past while looking forward and embracing the promises our future
beholds. We are taught to fight, to struggle, to give our best at each step of the way. We are a billion
plus voices which the world can no longer afford to ignore.

India in 2025: A perspective

With a population getting younger and a booming urban & educated middle-class, India would be
facing a generation divide in the next years. Emerging consumer middle-class often comes with a
western-orientated way of life that deeply affects morals and values. At the same time, gender
divide would decrease considering a higher participation of women in power and better access to
education. Even if the percentage of citizens voting remains quite low for now within the middle-
class, we can also consider that the access to education could modify political choices and especially
expectations of the future average Indian citizen in terms of right awareness and democratic culture
towards 2025. The generation divide could also manifest itself between aspirations of the younger
middle-class and the conservative view of elder people who hold the power to the extent that the
specific political demand from the younger middle-class would conduct to a change in the political
landscape. The emergence of urban middle-class does not however mask the huge rural part of the
population and its impoverishment. In spite of massive developments in the metropolis, India is still
facing a cultural & linguistic diversity around the country and the issue of pockets of the nation
wanting independence do not seem to stop. By 2025, we can definitely expect social issues like the
caste system, the dowry system, the quota system etc. to be on the wane. Will the improvement of
education on Indian soil slow down the phenomenon of brain drain? Indian community is now the
richest ethnic group in the US. At the same time Bangalore is becoming a new Silicon Valley. Are
these sustainable? Only time has the answer to these questions.

India & China, booming societies & similar in size, would compete for leadership in both economic
and political areas. India produces less rigid technocrats than China does. A democratic culture and
context in India favours innovation and entrepreneurship. However, China benefits from a massive
manufacturing base that India does not have. Within 20 years, China may be able to produce an
excellent English-speaking cheaper workforce which may offer more lucrative opportunities for US
and European corporations to prefer China over India when it comes to outsourcing services. This
can put a major strain on the Indian economy. This is because India suffers from an off-beaten
evolution of its economy in last 50 years directly switching from agriculture to services performance
but missing the second step of manufacturing development. In a context of the political
empowerment of emerging countries, China seems to be more aggressive and assertive in
expressing its voice and extending its influence. Its role in the African continent is a case in point.
Within 2025, we can definitely expect India to play a more dominant role and have a bigger say in
international geo-political matters as well as a more prominent role in the international institutions
like IMF, World Bank, UN etc.

The Indian youth holds the key:

Ever since humans stepped on the Earth they have tried to make life easier for themselves and
whenever we look back at our past we realize that present day world is much better place to live in.
However the ultimate state of utopia can only be achieved if we think rationally. The question is
where to look for in present India to take us to that ultimate summit? The answer to this question is
the Indian youth and especially the young generation from the middle class because not only they
are well educated but they possess the insatiable hunger to grow. In order to achieve the long term
benefits for the society we need to think beyond our self interest, this can only be achieved if we
take India out of the clutches of present day evils. The large segment of Indian society is drowned in
the age old blind faiths and the political and bureaucratic framework of India is corrupt from top to
bottom. Therefore we see people of different religious beliefs fighting over a small piece of land and
political parties taking advantage of the situation to make their influence felt and the failed state of
judiciary that is not able to give a verdict even after two decades. After sixty years of independence
we are not able to bring equality among men and women. The females of our country still fall victim
to dowry, domestic violence and female infanticide. The development in metros that is primarily
driven by service sector is causing the inequalities between urban and rural India. Still 52% of our
population is dependent on agriculture and only 17% is the contribution of this sector to the
economy. We have seen how this disparity has caused the rise of Naxalism in many states. It is
important that India should overcome these problems to establish itself as a developed country on
the globe. The Indian youth can play an instrumental role in achieving this goal. We need to show
curiosity and eagerness to learn, the education is a vital aspect of the development of our rational
thinking. However we need to be aware of the realities of the world we live in and reason out each
and every social norm. We need to learn liberalism from the west and dedication from the east. We
need to follow the good practices that we learn in our school, college and the experience of our day
to day life. When we would be able to visualize the problems in our social, economic and political
system and become determined to eradicate them, only then we would be able to truly contribute
to the development of our country.

Afterword

We, the citizens of India, must bury the hatchets of our past, the pangs of the partition, the stifling
nature of the license raj, the unemployment and poverty that characterized India before the
economic liberalization and look forward to the future with new strength, hope and zeal. We must
make it a target to solve all the problems like the Kasmir issue, the problems of infrastructure,
terrorism, Naxalism, corruption etc. by 2025. Put in a nutshell, we must ensure that any roadblock
on the way to achieving economic prosperity and social welfare has to be resolved by us sincerely.