Context

• This article highlights the vision for India in the 100th year of its Independence and the ways to achieve the vision.

Vision for India in 2047

• The author’s vision for India in the 100th year of its Independence is that of a global innovation leader focused on equitable and inclusive economic growth.

How can it be achieved?

1. To foster innovation culture
   1. Invest in breakthrough ideas and embrace entrepreneurship as an economic model of growth.
   2. Enable and support innovative start-ups and businesses and encourage technopreneurs to grow from small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to large industrial-scale operations.
   3. Aim to be among the top 20 countries in the Global Innovation Index by 2047.
2. To build a robust digital economy
   1. Digital and data-backed innovation combined with an affordable internet will help India build a robust digital economy of the future.
3. To transform to a digital healthcare system
   1. Coordinate policymaking, funding and implementation in healthcare system to reap the benefits of technology
   2. Put in place appropriate regulatory frameworks that foster patient trust and privacy, as well as enable faster adoption of emerging technological innovations.
   3. Raise healthcare spending to 5 percent of GDP by 2047 to truly deliver standardized and quality universal healthcare. (The government aims to raise public spending on healthcare to 2.5 percent of GDP by 2025)
4. To capture higher share of pharmaceutical value chain
   1. Focus on emerging opportunities across novel biologics, biosimilars, cell and gene therapies, high-end contract research and manufacturing services, mRNA and other new-generation vaccines, orphan drugs, precision medicines and molecular diagnostics.
   2. Pursue cutting-edge research and innovation, conduct global-scale operations and create a robust regulatory system. 
   3. Research Linked Incentives (RLIs) can provide the impetus for the pharma industry to increase R&D investments, as well as encourage greater industry-academia partnerships.
5. To empower women
   1. Focus more on women-centric programmes aimed at ensuring their education, health, economic security, safety and fundamental rights.
   2. Give women the opportunities and freedom to engage in productive work in the economic mainstream.
   3. Raise the level of women’s participation in the formal sector to 50 per cent by 2047.
6. Focus on renewable energy
   1. Formulate and implement environmental change policies that reconcile development and sustainability goals.
   2. Need to have a fully integrated environmental sustainability in its growth models by focusing on renewable energy and reducing waste, effluents, emissions and consumerism.
   3. Aim to meet 80 percent of our electricity requirements from renewable energy sources by 2047.

What would be the result?

• India will be able to unleash the power of innovation to ensure a better life for all its citizens.
• Research and innovation, fuelled by technology will make the country one of the world’s top three economies and bring it closer to developed nation status by 2047.
• Technology can help boost productivity and efficiency in the sphere of healthcare.
• The spurt in technological innovation will empower patients, address the needs of underserved populations and ensure universal access and affordable care to all Indians by 2047.
• The Indian pharma industry will be able to grow from the current $50 billion to $500 billion by 2047 and rank among the top five countries in value terms and No. 1 in volume terms.

Conclusion

• Creating a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy that is transparent, efficient, and economically inclusive will enable India to emerge as the third largest economy in the world and a true global power by the 100th year of its Independence.

Other takeaways from the article

• India’s pharmaceutical industry is at the global forefront as “the Pharmacy of the World”, ranking third in terms of pharmaceutical production by volume. 
• Female participation in the formal labour force in India is currently estimated at a dismal 24 per cent, among the lowest in developing nations.
• It is estimated that the Indian economy could grow by an additional 60 percent by 2025, adding $2.9 trillion, if women were represented in the formal economy at the same rate as men.