Are we on the way to the Great Indian Renaissance? If we are, what shape will it take? And what would Indian society be like? Reading the day’s newspapers, one gets immense satisfaction that we are at last, on the move. Here onwards, I quote reports on new developments that are taking place and are likely to take place in the near future. A leading international risk-rating firm has told global investors in a confidential report that India is now the world’s best growth market bet, as risks of doing business in the country have declined with the Narendra Modi Government having completed its QI (first quarter.) Modi’s style of governance bodes well for investors who can expect policy clarity and less red tape.
After a short breather, Sensex and Nifty scaled new peaks by soaring 293 points and 87 points respectively as overseas funds increased bets on growth optimism…..The stock markets haven’t had a losing month since January and for the year as a whole the bell-weather benchmarks are up by more than a quarter….Karnataka has become a preferred destination for Japanese investments.
The state currently houses 270 Japanese companies, the major ones being Toyota, Honda, Amada, Casio, Fujitsu and Indo-Nissan. India’s economy is likely to swell in absolute terms. It has shown signs of reviving after two successive years of below five per cent growth. Mobile handset manufacturer Celkon is looking at setting up its first manufacturing facility in India and is on talks with Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. “India has become an attractive place for manufacturing for players like us,” says the company’s executive director Murali Retineni. Pune-based motor cycle producer Bajaj Auto is expected to sell 22,000 KTM bikes this y ear and by 2020, it will sell 2.5 lakh bikes in the world market.
Companies dealing in financial services in India are set to get a boost with Leapfrog Investments – a private equity company backed by J P Morgan – raising a new fund which is set to invest Rs 600 crore in the country. The framework for NDA government’s stated goal of developing 100 smart cities will soon be finalised and the plan would allow plenty of opportunity for participation in the private sector, according to Urban Development Secretary Shankar Aggarwal. All the proposed 100 smart cities will be developed simultaneously. There will be a lot of job opportunities during the implementation of the Smart City plan.
According to Karnataka’s Chief Minister, the government of Karnataka is already looking at the possibility of having a Japanese township coming up at Vasantha Narsapura in Kolar district. According to reports, the Tokyo Declaration, taking India-Japan relations to the next level – a special strategic global partnership – has sent “new dynamism” to close ties between the two nations. To put it in plain words, we are in for vast changes in our lifestyle and in our reaction to others. An entirely new India seems to be in the offing, the state of which it is difficult to formulate. A renaissance is not caste, creed, community or religion-specific.
When Japan says it will give over US $34 billion over the next five years under the India-Japan Investment Promotion Partnership, it sounds like the beginning of vast changes in India, considering that the investment would include development of economic corridors, infrastructure, transport system and smart cities.
Japan, we also know, has also offered financial, technical and operational support to India for the Shinkansen System of bullet trains. Let this be said: If, in the course of the next decade, Indo-Japanese cooperation raises the standards of living in India, India will become a super power by 2020 as one commentator has already prophesied. There will be no on to challenge it.
The point to be noted is that India, China and Japan are Asian countires and if all three work together in a synchronised lifestyle, the 21st century will be the Asian Century, marginalising even the United States. Russia wouldn’t matter. Nor, for that matter Germany, France or Britain. Whether in Great Britain, Scotland seeks a separate statehood becomes largely irrelevant. Divided, Britain will have no right to permanent membership of the UN Security Council. It is difficult to envisage a renaissance India where religion would not matter and words like “secularism” and communalism” become outdated, ceasing to have any relevance.
We are at a stage when prosperity is just around the corner and can be taken over for the making. And a China-India-Japan conglomerate would not only change all there but can be expected to have a tremendous global impact, such as was noticed in mid-20th century with the rise of the United States as THE global power.
Change will occur over India’s cultural and political heritage that will become a global phenomenon, not because India wants it, but because change is inevitable. India will plainly be unrecognisable with progress in all forms of human activity whether it is in Arts, Theatre, Music, Dance, Drama, Literature and technology. Already, it is claimed, five new IITs seem likely to start functioning from the next academic session, one each in Jammu, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala. Four new IIMs have also been announced.
The Institute of Technology (IIT) Act is going to be suitably amended for including the new IITs under the law. Meanwhile, to signal the likely educational scene, Nalanda University would have risen from its ashes. It is a sign of things to come. It is a warning to all countries, globally. Beware, India is on its way to be a Great Power and nothing can stop it. In decades to come, it will be India that the world will have to reckon with. The Renaissance is on.
M V Kamath
