Many times, we see a person and wonder how they have changed externally and internally. It takes a lot for any of us to withstand what we face. The same goes for a country on a large scale. Little do we realize how far a nation has come and the reasons that have influenced its current position. Unlike a film, we can not point to a single reason or event that has altered the course and fate of millions of people living together on land but we can highlight some important events that gave major impetus to a country to stand in its current position. This article is about such arcs which defined India’s course of development.
Power-sharing and decentralization:
Many of us have read Indian polity or at least know that India is a quasi-federal nation which can be simply explained as a set-up in which the powers will be divided with the states technically but the states are dependent on the centre for their major needs. Though this helps in controlling internal security and avoiding chaos, it kills the competition and innovation to achieve things between the states as they are still dependent on the centre for their finances. One major step that has altered this course of centralized planning to micro-planning is the establishment of a think tank “NITI AAYOG” which shifted the top-down approach of planning to the bottom-up approach. One could not say everything has changed after this but one could also not deny that this is one of the major steps towards decentralisation in India.
Accessing Information:
We shop many things online and try to track our orders as soon as we buy them but what about the services we avail of from the government? Let us go back a decade, one simple act has revolutionized the entire system of availing services to the citizens and addressing their grievances. The right to information act 2005 is an important tool in our hands that could help us keep a check on how our taxes, money allotted to the welfare schemes etc, are functioning. This is a very important tool that made the bureaucracy and the legislature realize that they are accountable to the citizens of India but the sad bottom line is the underutilization of such a precious tool by us.
The year that we opened up
Speaking of the Indian economy, one could not skip the 1991 reforms which opened up the Indian economy to the world and encouraged a free market economy. Of course, this leap in economic status has come with a cost in sociological changes for which the repercussions are still felt. India was a self-sufficient economy and managed by itself in most of the economic spheres which also made it stagnant but when these reforms opened up the economy, it boomed and brought in various technological advancements with it.
Revolution within the field
The majority of the Indian population is still dependent on agriculture, yet we had to import food grains from other countries till the 1960s. One event that changed the course of this dependence is the green revolution which rapidly increased the agriculture output and made India a net exporter rather than a net importer but just like any other idea or scheme, this change also had its dark side. Most of the benefits were exploited by the rich farmers and landlords who could afford the increased prices of inputs. The increased subsidies for rice and wheat has drastically shifted the farming practices to be completely dependent on the food grains and neglected other crops but one can say that India owes to the green revolution as it could now withstand any major famines unlike in the past.
These are some of the points and situations which majorly influenced the course of development in India and we should accept that we have a long way to move forward and to realize this journey of ours, we should always take pride in what we are and yet stay humble and open to new and positive thoughts.
