'India A Bullish Nation Brimming With Excitem​ent': Journalist Fareed Zakaria Lauds '3 Major Revolutions'

Fareed Zakaria, Indian-American journalist, political commentator and author, on his show GPS on CNN, termed India “a bullish nation, brimming with excitement”.

“It has some hurdles to clear, but I lay out a path for it to truly become an incredible India,” said the Washington Post columnist.

“While people in the United States (US) and Europe are worried about inflation and a possible recession, Indians are excited about the future. India is the most populous country on the planet, but is also projected to be the fastest growing economy as well at 5.9% this year. PM Narendra Modi has said India’s time has come.”

“In 2006, at the World Economic Forum at Davos, there were billboards of Incredible India, proclaiming it to be the world’s fastest growing free market democracy. India was growing even faster than now at 9%. But it didn’t work out that way…Many foreign businesses that had entered were disappointed and even left. As for beating China, despite its slowdown, the Chinese economy today is five times that of India,” he said, adding, “While the enthusiasm in the mid-2000s did not fully translate, it made progress…It has been the second fastest growing economy after China.”

THREE MAJOR REVOLUTIONS: AADHAAR, JIO, INFRA

Lauding India’s Aadhaar revolution, he said, “In recent years, it has been able to accelerate growth because of a series of revolutions. The first was the Aadhaar revolution, giving every Indian a unique 12-digit ID verified by fingerprint or iris scan. Nobel laureate Paul Romer called it the most sophisticated programme. Today, 99.9% Indians use this ID to identify who they are and get a bank account in minutes or to transfer government payments to recipients directly. It is publicly owned, unlike in the West, where Google or Facebook are private monopolies that can share data to make a profit. Entrepreneurs can even build businesses on Aadhaar without the persistent fees in the West.”

“The second is the Jio revolution. Mukesh Ambani, India’s biggest and most ambitious businessman, made a staggering $46 billion bet that by offering very cheap phones and data packages he could get most Indians on the Internet. It worked. With most using smartphones as computers, over 700 million Indians use the Internet. India’s usage of data is larger than the US and China combined.”

“The third is an infrastructure revolution. Spending on roads, airports and train stations has exploded. The government’s capital expenditure (CAPEX) has risen five fold since fiscal year 2014. The average construction of national highways has doubled, as has the number of airports. Mumbai is finally building an extensive set of bridges, roads, tunnels and metro lines which could connect all parts of the leading economic centre.”

THE CHALLENGES

Commenting on India’s approach towards the poor, he said, “As of 2019, 45% Indians, more than 600 million, live on less than three dollars and 65 cents a day. Nandan Nilekani, visionary architect of Aadhaar, said rather than the Chinese top-down approach of building companies that hire tens of thousands, if 10 million small businesses get loans, then let them each hire two more people. That is 20 million new jobs.”

“The larger challenge of inclusivity is around women…Female labour force participation has fallen in last two decades from 30% to 23%. Of the G-20 countries, not even Saudi Arabia’s is lower. Bloomberg Economics estimates increasing it would push India’s GDP more than 30% over the next three decades…Focus on inclusivity would also transform religious tensions, bringing into the fold India’s Muslims, 200 million people, a seventh of the country, who face persistent persecution. It would be in character for a country that is open, pluralistic and a democracy, where the majority of the population are Hindus, a religious almost defined by its pluralism and tolerance…

“India has the potential to be admired not just for the quantity of its growth, but also for the quality of its values and that would be a truly incredible India,” he signed off.

Read all the Latest India News here