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Point<br />
Out<br />
COVER STORY<br />
CHANGING FACE OF INDIA<br />
technologies and support innovation in<br />
select areas of national importance. At<br />
the first meeting itself, council members<br />
decided that TIFAC must evolve a plan<br />
for India’s transformation into an<br />
economically developed nation by 2020.<br />
But it was a time when the economic<br />
liberalization initiated by then Prime<br />
Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao had just<br />
begun to take effect, and everybody on<br />
the council wondered how we could<br />
evolve a long-term mission under<br />
the prevailing economic and social<br />
conditions which could very well be<br />
completely different from those twenty<br />
years later. At a time when the economy<br />
was growing at around 5 per cent to 6<br />
per cent per annum, we had to envisage<br />
a growth rate of at least 10 per cent<br />
consistently for over ten years in order<br />
to realize the development of a billion<br />
democratic, multi-lingual, multireligious<br />
and multi-cultural people.<br />
Distinctive Profile of a Developed India<br />
Now, let me tell you what an<br />
economically developed India should<br />
look like by 2020:<br />
1. A nation where the rural-urban divide<br />
has been reduced to a thin line.<br />
2. A nation where there is an equitable<br />
distribution of, and adequate access<br />
A nation where the best of healthcare is available to all. A<br />
nation where education with a good value system is not denied<br />
to any meritorious candidates because of societal or economic<br />
discrimination.<br />
to, energy and quality water.<br />
3. A nation where agriculture, industry<br />
and the service sector work together<br />
in symphony.<br />
4. A nation where education with a good<br />
value system is not denied to any<br />
meritorious candidates because of<br />
societal or economic discrimination.<br />
5. A nation which is the best destination<br />
for the most talented scholars,<br />
scientists, and investors from around<br />
the world.<br />
6. A nation where the best of healthcare<br />
is available to all.<br />
7. A nation where governance is<br />
responsive, transparent and<br />
corruption-free.<br />
8. A nation where poverty has been<br />
totally eradicated, illiteracy removed,<br />
crimes against women and children<br />
absent, and no one in the society<br />
feels alienated.<br />
9. A nation that is prosperous, healthy,<br />
secure, devoid of terrorism, peaceful<br />
and happy, and continues on a<br />
sustainable growth path.<br />
10. A nation that is one of the best<br />
places to live in and is proud of its<br />
leadership.<br />
Integrated Action for a Developed<br />
India<br />
In order to realize this distinctive profile,<br />
we have to transform India in five areas<br />
where India has core competence:<br />
1. Agriculture and food processing<br />
2. Education and healthcare<br />
3. Information and communication<br />
technology<br />
4. Infrastructure development, which<br />
includes reliable and quality electric<br />
power, surface transport and<br />
infrastructure for all parts of the<br />
country including rural and urban<br />
areas under PURA<br />
5. Self-reliance in critical technologies<br />
18<br />
August <strong>2014</strong>
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