India at 75th Independence: A perspective from an expat

India is celebrating its 75th year of Independence. It gives an amazing feeling being Indian in any part of the world to see this day. At the same time, it also makes you wonder what has happened in last 75 years and where does a country with ~1.4 billion population stands in terms of its global positioning or uplifting its population. This view becomes more interesting as an expat when we get an opportunity to see different parts of the world and by basic human nature start comparing in every aspect of life. Having spent last few years in Germany, this is a natural feeling to me personally.

Indian history has many dimensions and I focus on the last few years where India underwent a basic shift from the time of 2011-2012 and a very different India has emerged since then. There has been change in the attitude from being winners in any sectors such as startups to space to sports. There is greater awareness among people with respect to accessing information to education. Yet there are fundamental flaws which require a change right from policy making to shift in the mindset. One such examples is the attitude towards public health, where COVID-19 second wave has left deep impact on basic human life and still there is lot of complacency in either accepting the challenges or taking measures and mitigating future challenges. The other example in this line could be the impact of social media on decision making in every day life. Social media is a powerful tool which can change or influence how societies behave and India is one of the primary example where these influence can be observed in last few years. Attitude towards scientific outlook or science based decision making could also very well fit into this argument.

One of the factor which always crosses my mind is the contribution of the expats to the growth of the country. India has the highest remittance contribution from across the world. Over the last many years, I have been part of numerous conversations about how expats can make an impact back in India. I have personally chosen a few routes for contributing back to the country. These include ways of mentoring students and startups, advocating skill development and developing a strong sense of community among expats in Germany. Some of my personal contributions include leading a student organization in Heidelberg for a few years, representing DAAD as Young India Ambassador, designing program for my company which included India specific startups, designing India-Germany specific startup programs for a non-profit organization, representing as an Ambassador for the official German Indian startup exchange program and mentoring numerous students for their career choices or in the times of distress.

As India moves into a very decisive phase of its development mitigating the pandemic challenges, there are numerous ways in which expats can make a difference to the country’s development. ?Expats can raise awareness on variety of topics such as technology to hygiene to education to climate change. Coming from a scientific background, I personally think science, research, technology and skills will be the key to future progress of the country and understanding bigger challenges such as pandemic or antimicrobial resistance or flash floods. Expats can contribute a lot to the knowledge and expertise in all these areas.

It’s the time when the country needs to hold its culture but use tools of science and technology to accelerate in a positive direction rather then moving in circle. I envision of an India where we see a political system with ministries of A.I, super skills, data science, sports science, adventure, culture, startups and the topics matching to the needs of the time. We as an expat can contribute to making that dream into a success with our experiences, knowledge and resources.