Is Brand India a ‘grand narrative’, or a million stories?

A country such as India is a mega brand, but not in the conventional sense.

So, is Brand India the IT Superpower, World’s Vaccine Factory, Oldest Civilisation, Fast Growing Large Economy, Largest Democracy?

At one level, it is all of the above, but these simplistic, stereotypical labels are not very meaningful. India’s scale and diversity, disparities and paradoxes, mean that if we are engaging with Brand India in any capacity – as investor, business, policy maker, researcher, NGO – we must not be swayed by overarching narratives, but look at granular data for sharper insights.

Performance on SDGs contains a million stories about India on the move

A great example is offered by the SDG India Index and Dashboard 2020-21, released last week by NITI Aayog.

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were adopted in 2015, by all 193 UN member countries, as a universal call to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity by 2030. 17 SDGs were identified which are all integrated, recognising that action in one area will affect outcomes in others, and that development must balance social, economic and environmental sustainability. Achieving the SDGs also requires various stakeholders to come together – governments, private sector, civil society and citizens alike.

I have had the opportunity to be involved in developing the SDG communication strategy for the state of Haryana, and was impressed with the strategic coherence, process rigour and localisation that the SDG framework brought to the exercise for my client, UNDP, and the state govt.  

The SDG India Index is a data-driven initiative that monitors progress across 115 quantitative indicators, and promotes competitive federalism among different states by ranking them. The third and latest edition of the SDG India Index shows interesting findings that challenge the ‘overarching narrative’ approach of looking at Brand India.

Consider some snippets:

• Compared to the last year, India's rank among all countries has slipped by two places to 117, but its overall score has improved from 60 to 66 (on a scale of 100)
• We may be a regional superpower, but we rank below our 4 South Asian neighbours – Bhutan (rank 80), Sri Lanka (rank 94), Nepal (rank 96), and Bangladesh (rank 109)
• India is showing good progress (score over 80) in the goals of Affordable & Clean Energy, and Clean Water & Sanitation, while performing poorly (score under 50) on Zero Hunger, and Gender Equality
• High income level doesn’t automatically mean a state is good in sustainable development – Kerala is the 9th in GDP per capita yet tops in SDGs, Himachal is the 14th yet comes second
• The fastest progress has been made by small states like Mizoram, Haryana, Uttarakhand and Chandigarh; the slowest progress is by West Bengal, Bihar and Assam
• There is a stark difference between the high performing Southern and Western states on the one hand, and the laggards (politely referred to as ‘Aspirants’ by the Index) viz. Northern, Central and Eastern states, on the other. Clearly, socio-economic and governance disparities persist
• This also makes the latter disproportionately vulnerable to the pandemic and its after-effects
• There are some curious methodological changes in this edition, like dropping of several economic indicators such as growth in household expenditure (in favour of some social indicators), leading to reporting of better delivery than is the case, on the goal of ‘Reduced Inequalities’ 

These are some of the many insights that emerge when you look at the country in a granular way. It provides interesting new ways of segmenting the market, and of responding with a marketing mix, including a communication approach, that is context-led.

SDGs in Haryana: A case in point

To illustrate this, let me share my experience of working on the strategic framework for SDG communication in Haryana. We needed to be mindful of the fact that in a country of disparities, Haryana is the king of contrasts! So, while the state has high per capita income, it is poor on social indicators, especially health and nutrition of children.

Despite all its champion women athletes, the legendary Haryanvi ‘shaan’ is a male preserve, with huge gender issues ranging from violence against women, to high maternal mortality, the lowest child sex ratio in the country, and poor literacy and employment levels. There is extreme urban-rural divide, and there is major disparity across districts, both in terms of income as well as culturally speaking (consider the huge cultural gulf between Gurgaon and its neighbouring Mewat).

Any vision of sustainable development for Haryana must acknowledge these realities, and any communication that is created to support this vision, too, must factor in these contrasts.

We also needed to keep in mind the potential contradiction between the very grounded, practical Haryanvi psyche, and the potential risk that SDGs might end up sounding like global abstractions. In order to create greater resonance, creating an approach rooted in personal and community relevance is imperative, and tapping into local icons and cultural forms like Ragni and Saang is advisable.

India is indeed a million stories,

that we must listen to, process,

and base our actions on.

In conclusion, however, let me sum up my more qualitative inferences from the SDG India Index:

• Self-image as a superpower may not always correspond with hard facts
• Being rich and being developed can be two different things
• Ideology doesn't matter, governance does; any ideology can deliver if it chooses to
• Small can be beautiful when it comes to states
• Excessive obsession with politics keeps some states down, almost perennially
• Dressing up data doesn't change the reality
• Stark disparities create psychological fault lines – not just within social groups, but between regions too (beware of this one)

#ContextLedCommunication

(Rajeev Shukla is Co-founder & Managing Partner of Resonance Consulting, a branding and communication firm offering services that include Insight Mining, Brand Strategy, Identity & Design, Communication, Employer Branding & Employee Engagement, CSR Advisory. )