VISION 2050 : INDIA after Covid.-19

 

by Satyasiddha Mishra

There is a saying which says, “When going gets tough, the tough gets going.” And that, “After the darkest night comes the brightest morning.” If truth be told in plain terms, we are going through the toughest and darkest phase of our lives! These are trying times unlike anything India has faced since the struggle for Independence!

Frankly speaking, India has handled this ongoing pandemic relatively well considering her mammoth population and ever dwindling economy! It’s no less a consolation that the so called rich and powerful countries have fared worse than us. Countries like the USA, Brazil and Mexico have higher number of deaths due to Corona than India!

Coming to the future plans, our country India is all set to build a bright future. Even big financial institutions like World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) have predicted double digit GDP (Gross Domestic Product) for India for the year 2021-22!

This is mainly due to a plethora of infrastructural projects undertaken by the Indian government. The projects capable of changing the face of the country are as follows :

1. Bharatmala is a Road Construction Project undertaken by National Highway Authority of India (NHAI). It is intended to improve connectivity, enable faster movement of goods, create 22 million jobs and decrease supply chain costs from the current average of 18% to 6%! Roads are pretty important for the development of a region. Legendary US President John F. Kennedy once said, “American roads are not good because America is rich, but America is rich because American roads are good!”

2. Sagarmala Project is a plan to modernize 12 major ports and 185 minor ports along the entire 7,500 km long coastline of India. It is intended to stimulate trade, create 10 million new jobs, provide logistic costs savings of over Rs 35,000 crores (5 billion dollars) per year and potential GDP increase by 2%!

3. Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC): It is a plan to connect the political capital of India, Delhi with the financial capital of India, Mumbai. It is one of the world’s largest infrastructure projects with a total cost of 100 billion dollars!

4. Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC): A 3,300 km “freight only” Railway track is being constructed for goods trains. This freight corridor will in turn decongest the tracks for passenger trains, thereby, increasing passenger safety and prevent train delays.

5. INSTC (International North South Trade Corridor): The trade route from India to Europe and Russia is currently through sea route and passes through Suez Canal. But with this new trade corridor, the shipping route will be from India’s Mumbai port to Chabahar Port in Iran and from there, it will take a land route via Central Asia to Russia. This will shorten the distance by 40% and reduce the cost by 30% and will also gain access to the Central Asia market.

Then there is the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme, which is aimed at boosting domestic manufacturing and exports. This will increase the country’s production by a whopping 520 billion dollars in the next 5 years! 

Well everything is not hunky-dory in India, where it can easily become a world power by 2050. There are many a slips between the cup and the lips. Our country might be a place of endless possibilities but at the same time, endless problems do exist. We have problems, like overpopulation, climate change, poverty, crime, internal conflicts based on caste, creed and colour, cross-border terrorism, naxalism, border disputes, mainly with Pakistan and China and the lists elongates like the tail of Hanuman!

On top of that Covid Pandemic has heavily dented our economy. Today, we are at the crossroad, where the positive and the negative forces are equally fighting with each other. 

Things look neither too gloomy nor too bright. Breaking this dilemma and taking a stride towards the bright side depends upon our commitment to our work. We, the people of India, can work towards a brighter future. Hard work is the key to our success.

Sanjay Kumar Mishra
WhatsApp# +919981411674
snjymshr64@gmail.com
Department of English
Rajkumar College, Raipur
Chhattisgarh, India

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