In this short video I analyze where India is heading and how it has to reflect about its relationship between powerful nations.
Here is a brief text of the essay:
It is time for India to reflect on its position in the world order as the rupee slides further thanks to the USA’s adventures around the world.
The USA’s war in Iran and its forceful tariff diplomacy has not bode well for the world.
The current tensions have led to foreign capital’s flight from India’s stock markets. Combine this with the rise of AI technology, job losses are going to hurt India’s IT industry and many more.
It is never good for an old civilization to be kicked around, but it is good for it to be reminded that it has to make its own fortune. Unlike China, India has to come together sooner than later. At the moment it loves its cricket, its consumer business valuations, its uncontrollable carbohydrate addiction, and ever so occasionally, the inconspicuous army that protects its borders from several rogue nations.
But India’s dependence on foreign markets have led the rupee to slide.
Come to think of it, the very idea of its independence was to overcome imperial powers, but it is caught between powers such as China and the USA.
The fix for all the fall of the rupee is not in economic austerity, but a massive, gradual overhaul of its systems that will make it stronger in the long run.
It's not easy to change India’s institutions because it is a complex legal bureaucracy whose only bells and whistles are a bag or rules, and unaccountable practices.
Yet the idea of India works brilliantly because of its diversity. But, can it notch one up in the geo-political chaos of this decade?
Let's look at some real cases that should wake people up.
India does not control commodities that run the world - oil, phosphorus, rare earths, and helium. To top it up India does not have any sort of grip on the hardware ecosystem. Entire industry verticals such as agriculture, automobile and energy sectors are dependent on either the USA, Russia or China.
Its dependence on imported hardware systems that support robotics and AI compute has tied it to Corporations of US, Chinese, Japanese and European origins.
So, where must the change begin?
It has to centralize aspects that will define its future and make accountability the core of everything. It must remove all the weeds that don't want the system to function.
It must begin with its education system, which builds talent for a bureaucratic and managerial legacy.
It must centralize the education system and remove the capitalistic nature of education, let the pedagogy encourage thinkers, builders and risk takers. It must remove any religious or identity led affiliation.
By doling out degrees we have impractical youth who don't know how a system works and don't have the initiative to think how systems function.
India must blend critical thinking of history with research and combine the best of modern science to build businesses.
Until schools and colleges are owned by pro-western religious institutions and selective Jati led ecosystems, it is going to be harder for the idea of India to further itself. It is going to have an even harder time with neo-capitalists who propose a western style system that furthers a consumption economy. This tendency can destroy India’s environment and natural resources only to usher in ecological imbalances.
India must find a way as it has strong foundations of a scientific society to foster mega transitions that are inclusive of all life.
The country has already made plans to transition into green energy by 2075 and has increased investments in deep tech significantly. But as a nation it must plan industrial transitions along with its biggest strength- “people” - as a resource.
Its scientific foundations must find ideas to rid the nation from its dependence on importing oil, fertilizers, electronics and rare earths from these powerful nations.
There must be enormous effort to build practical new industrial ecosystems that create new fuels, batteries along with cutting edge manufacturing systems. The contradiction is that we have to be dependent on various nations in the short term who have resources.
India must continue to make political overtures to resource rich nations such as Vietnam, Australia and Brazil. It must continue its relationship with Russia and China in the near short term for chemical fertilizers.
India’s agriculture industry must move towards using nano fertilizers in order to put an end to volume based farming which uses chemicals. There are some investments going into green ammonia and green hydrogen, which perhaps will be the future of Indian agriculture and energy.
India must also put an end to importing anything that can be manufactured locally.
Over time its scientists, civil society and government must find a way to work together more often than not otherwise
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