Is India going to be a Superpower?
The title looks very spicy and the matter is also very spicy right now because India is taking big steps towards becoming a Superpower of the world and that may happen very soon, maybe near 2050 according to analyst.
Today I'm going to tell you about the future aspects of India becoming a superpower and what are some factors which prove this parameter.
First, let's talk about what the word ‘superpower’ means
We often think superpower means good infrastructure, high-tech technology, literate population, and modern facilities, but that is not the case.
Being a developed superpower means that we’re doing sustainable development, it means we’re doing development with environment, not against environment and India is doing that efficiently.
India has increased his forest cover dramatically in the past several years and is a founder of International Solar Alliance (ISA), this shows India has been very serious about the climate change and Global Warming.
That is because India with its other counterparts around the world are facing the wrath of doing four Industrial Revolution with the use of fossil fuels and harmful chemicals, in which developed countries has bigger percentage for this problem.
India is making sure that when the 5th Industrial Revolution starts it should be well-equipped to use only renewable energy and its main aim is to become net carbon-free.
Second, India’s Diplomacy and its smooth International Relations
India has been having good relations with most of the countries in the world and there are very few countries which have somewhat bitter relation with India namely China, Pakistan, Turkey, and Bahrain.
India has been working to have neutral relation with every superpower, like it is having a good relation with both the USA and Russia, though it is having a bitter relation with China but India's largest trading partner is China.
It has been giving loans to smaller countries like the Maldives, Sri Lanka, etc so they won't get into the debt trap of china.
There are many challenges that lie ahead — like Cross-border terrorism, India’s CAATSA Sanctions, which means the US could pose sanctions against India due to India getting military equipment from Russia, and Chinese Expansionism.
Third, Uniting Different Faiths and Communities
Since 1947, India has been working to unite its population, which is so diverse in nature that India sometimes known as a mini continent.
Despite years of colonial rule, India moved in the right direction with unifying its diverse population. Considering that India has 2,000-odd castes, 8 “major” religions, roughly 15 spoken languages with different dialects and many tribes and sect, it can be quite a challenge to have everyone united and live harmoniously.
Some areas of concern are ethnic conflict in Assam, Border issues in North-Eastern states, Sikh-Hindu conflict in Punjab, Naxalites, Muslim- Hindu conflict and anti-Christian violence. There’s more, but acknowledging how far they’ve come could motivate India to continue working on abolishing divisive cultural and religious issues.
If you consider what India has managed to do since the end of colonial rule in 1947, it’s pretty impressive.
Fourth, new policy for Education
Every developed nation has one feature that its population is literate and that's the reason Indian Government is focusing so much on Education.
Last year, India formulated a new policy called New Education Policy, I’ll get deep into this topic in next time but according to experts and government, this is the biggest revision in education policy since it last gets formulated in 1986.
The literacy rate in India is 74.04 per cent: 82.14 for males and 65.46 for females. India ranked at 123 out of 135 countries in female literacy rate.
The reason that India is so far behind in literacy is due to the social and economic divide in the country, and it’s a repetitive cycle that needs to be eradicated.
How much does India spend on education?
Budget 2020–21: ₹ 99,300 crore; 3.2 percent of the total union budget.
Fifth, most important Military
The Indian Armed Forces are the country’s leading defence organization, consisting of two branches: the paramilitary and military core. The military of the nation maintains the second-largest active-duty force in the whole world, after China. In contrast, the Indian paramilitary forces are the second-largest paramilitary force in the world. Combining these two, the country’s total armed forces are 2,414,700 strong, making it the third-largest defence forces in the whole world.
Talking about the Air Force, it is the fourth-largest Air Force of the world.
The Indian Navy is the world’s fifth-largest Navy. It considered that it has Blue water capabilities with sophisticated missile capable warships, aircraft carrier, advanced submarines, minesweepers, and the latest aircraft in its inventory and effective use of state-of-the-art technology indigenously manufactured. It operates one aircraft carrier and is also planning to induct the INS Vikrant, followed by a larger INS Vishal.
Sixth, Making it World’s Largest Economy
Can India Overtake the US and China as the Strongest Economy?
We heard this question several times and if we heard corporates of India they are very bullish on India and according to them this will happen by 2050.
India Is the world’s seventh-largest economy by nominal GDP and the third-largest by purchasing power party (PPP).
What is appreciable about the country’s economy is that it has one of the fastest-growing service sectors in the whole world.
The IT sector of the country is significantly expanding a lot. This is the reason some have already begun to describe our country as a superpower in technologies. It considered to be the world’s office and is leading in the services industry. The main reason behind this is the large pool of highly skilled people who can work on comparatively lower costs and the English-speaking workforce. This is the fastest-growing part of the country’s economy.
Seventh, Population and its workforce
India has a population of 1.34 billion people and the figures are increasing daily, increasing population can be an issue because we have limited resources on earth and limited opportunities to give to our youth.
India has 50% of its population below the age of 24 which means there are plenty of fresh, young minds with a lot to offer the country. It’s a massive workforce that could last a few decades.
With effective education and by giving them equal opportunities, we can provide them a future for themselves. By educating women, we can control population explosion too.
Eighth, Promote Entrepreneurship
“Every Indian is an Entrepreneur by birth.”
2021 is a remarkable year because there are 21 startups which became unicorn in 2021.
There are many entrepreneurs who are trying to make India go digital in every way.
Foreign investors like Alibaba, Tencent, Softbank, Microsoft, Google, etc are investing in Indian startups heavily because they trust India's growth in the next few decades.
Ninth, Geography
India, covered by the Indian Ocean, has primary access to it because of its geographical position. The ocean is in such a zone that it has unprecedented potential for growth in the scale of transoceanic commerce with many Europe and Asian countries. Secondly, Afro-Asian sea trade routes also pass through or close by to the Indian territorial waters.
India lies in the tropical belt, this means that it has access to sunlight the whole year, except in December and January in some parts. This feature is very beneficial for India as it heavily invest in solar panels for the renewable source of energy. This feature helps it to become a superpower.
Tenth, Natural Resources
India has 25% of the whole world’s thorium resources. This will further help India enter the nuclear age and help it become a superpower.
Metallic minerals available in the country are chromite, copper, lead, tin, bauxite, silver, manganese, zinc ore, zinc, and gold.
India is the second-largest coal producer after China, with a production of 780 million tonnes, or nearly 10% of the total global coal share. However, India itself still relies heavily on coal as its energy source, especially for their power plant. But this will change in the next few decades as India is looking for renewable energy sources, and it is aiming to become net-carbon free by 2050.
Conclusion
As you've seen in the above points, India has quite a chance to become a superpower of the world in the next few decades.
Although, it has its own challenges which India faces daily like Corruption, Unemployment, Reservation, Hunger, Poverty and much more.
To become the Superpower of the world, India has to find solution of these problems. That's it from my side.
Thank you for reading this bulky article, it can be more bulky because a country is more than just an article, and it can be any country, not just India.
