An Appeal by a Citizen to Build a Progressive India

by Restoring True Democracy.

Our nation’s founding members and freedom fighters poured their blood and sweat for our motherland, the fruits of which are the Independence of India in 1947. Since then, we have been able to lead life freely, respectably, and democratically. Our freedom fighters dreamed of a Progressive India that is free of Social Discrimination, Economic Inequality, Environmental Damage, and Political Injustice. To live by these principles in a liberal society, we adopted a constitution in 1950 and made amendments when deemed necessary.

 

Let us ask ourselves an important question. Today, do we truly live in a Progressive India? Since its independence in 1947, India has been navigating through economic uncertainties and political and policy changes. India has tremendous potential to be a leading global economy; however, we have struggled to attain holistic growth and development as a country. While we only focus on GDP or building robust roads and infrastructure, we are turning a blind eye towards quality of living and choosing to deprioritize the increasing poverty levels.

 

Retrospecting the 75 years journey of post-independence India, it is evident that we need to work rigorously towards the progressiveness our founding members envisioned in 1947. How do we get there? Before we answer this question and discuss potential solutions, let us first understand history. Because to create historical change, we should first know and understand our history. 

 

Get ready for a journey through India’s post-independence era to learn about implemented policies. We shall also look at how business ecosystems evolved in the 1990s after the emergence of liberalization. 

Chapter 1: Is India a progressive nation?

Soon after achieving independence, the control over India was swiftly taken over by the political class from founding members and leaders. Politicians had many opportunities to transform our country progressively; there were significant developments, such as the establishment of educational and research institutions, space research centers, and tremendous agricultural growth. From 1947 to 1990, India followed a policy framework called License and Permit Raj. This policy framework is also known as planning-based policy, inspired by the USSR (then Russia). The policy states that the government’s permission is mandatory for any and every action. 

 

It was during this period that the first five-year plan started (1951). The primary concern was to mitigate hunger and reduce severe poverty because 80-90% of the population’s livelihood depended only on agriculture. India could attain these goals but only partially. In this phase, people’s choices were strictly controlled.

 

The progress in agriculture resolved the hunger crisis. The green revolution played an instrumental role in this crisis resolution. However, the policymakers could not see the fact that poverty is a multifaceted phenomenon; to alleviate it, we need quality of work, quality of living, a reduction in malnutrition level, and an increase in income level. Therefore, working towards increasing the income level alone was not enough to uplift the people from below the poverty line. But the population was growing at a high rate, and GDP stagnated; the annual average was at the rate of 3-4%, and the government too was unable to meet the needs of the poor. Resultantly, poverty levels skyrocketed further. 

 

During this period, entrepreneurs did not want to establish businesses because of massive taxes, and most industries were established and run by the government. For example, there was only one car company, and the government manufactured the cars. The public sector alone was unable to provide jobs, and thus unemployment increased. All these factors led to a crisis in India, resulting in liberalizing our economy, with the government’s withdrawal of control on markets and private entities taking over. The year 1990 marked the beginning of Liberalization. 

 

In the following chapter, we shall take a glimpse into the post-liberalization era. 



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