A Vision Of India In 2020 - The Epilogue

In this series, Sramana Mitra shares chapters from her book Vision India 2020, that outlines 45 interesting ideas for start-up companies with the potential to become billion-dollar enterprises. These articles are written as business fiction, as if we’re in 2020, reflecting back on building these businesses over the previous decade. We hope to spark ideas for building successful start-ups of your own.

India, maybe more so than any other country, has a critical decade ahead. Infrastructure remains in a precarious state. Relentless urbanization has taken a decimating aesthetic and environmental toll, rendering cities near unlivable. The education system is failing to educate. The 6%-8% GDP growth can only be sustained if infrastructure develops at a similar pace, and if the ongoing environmental disaster can be reined in and then reversed.

While I said at the outset that entrepreneurs alone can carry the development mission forward, there is no doubt that the government must also demonstrate political will to bring about systemic change. Entrepreneurs will need help. Help through policies that dictate the construction of solar and hydro smart grids, as well as canals to engage in water diplomacy. And help from governments in bringing about aggressive privatization of ports and airports.

Vision India 2020 is, therefore, just as much for those in government who are serious about moving India forward as it is for entrepreneurs on the brink. And just as much as it is for Indian policymakers and Indian entrepreneurs, it must also be for those neighboring India, both friend and foe: Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan. I am convinced that for India’s development to proceed undeterred, the rest of the South Asian countries must join in the advance. For each have critical dependencies with India, and India with them.

Jute, for instance, is as much a strength of India as it is of Bangladesh. Where, after all, do the plains of Bengal end and those of Bangladesh begin? An entrepreneur taking on a jute project has no reason not to include the crop from Bangladesh. And any water desalination project along the coast of Gujarat must take into account Pakistan’s needs, just as it considers Rajasthan’s. Too long has the region been divided in political and ideological quarrel when these common gains could advance the region’s holistic health.

By 2050, India will have a population of 1.6 billion people, the largest in the world. While this is an enormous problem, from the point of view of entrepreneurs and marketers elsewhere in the world, India’s immense consumer population is also a phenomenally attractive business opportunity. But only if India allows the international business community free access to its markets, enticing entrepreneurs and investors from around the world to bring their products into India. Increased diplomatic relations depend upon such trade. If French wine, for example, became popular in India, it would create many jobs back home in France. Perhaps Africa, Latin America, and Indonesia will develop on the wings of supplying minerals to India. And perhaps on the wings of such trade so too will grow the working relationships between India and the greater globe.

At the same time, India needs to import more than goods. Expertise in its areas of weakness also need to be brought in – one of them being marketing, and a second, design. These are disciplines that the Americans, the Japanese, the French, and the Italians excel in. India must welcome, and learn from, the immense talents of these countries.

In 2020, I envision a more international India. An open India. An India engaged with the world – not imperialistic, but diplomatic and benevolent. An India capable of complementing its natural strengths with those of its international collaborators. A high-velocity India unencumbered by mindless bureaucracy. A thinking India that can envision its own products, rather than blindly executing on American specs. And finally, a bold, confident India, having shaken off centuries of servility to stand on its own two feet and look out upon its own infinite possibilities.

Is that India so far away? Ten years, at most.

Photo credit: Micha? Huniewicz /Flickr.com.