India can go from aspirational to inspirational in 25 years

As we celebrate Republic Day, the narrative has now shifted to India becoming a developed country. Coupled with the fact that India is poised to become the world’s third largest economy by 2030, this has led to a change in mindset, strategy and policy at all levels, where the conversation is now happening around ease of living, especially For underserved populations. So that they can contribute significantly in the development of the country. The thinking has changed from backward to aspirational to inspirational.

full steam ahead: To reach that destination, our improvement in Human Development Indices needs intense attention. The government, on its part, is leaving no stone unturned to join the club of ‘developed nations’. To make this a reality, India’s Human Development Index score needs to move closer to the high-end 0.8 from the current mid-end level of 0.645. We should focus our attention on the parts of India where the poorest people live, such as the designated aspirational districts. While Covid disrupted the growth trajectory globally, the shock in India can be offset through the right mix of policy support and private sector efforts.

Launched in 2018, the Government’s Aspirational Districts Program is an ambitious effort to transform India’s 112 most backward districts by driving behavioral change among all local stakeholders. A lot has been covered in four years and there are reasons to rejoice, as evidenced by the UNDP assessment report which commends it for implementing “innovative technologies” and calls it a model to replicate globally . Many of these districts have done better than others. Over the past four years, setting a bar for being inspirational.

In partnership with NITI Aayog, Piramal Foundation launched an ambitious Districts Collaborative effort across 27 Indian states covering all 112 of these districts by 2021 to make life easier for people. What differentiates this initiative from other development initiatives are the twin pillars of ‘hyperlocal collaboration’ and ‘last-mile convergence’, both of which have yielded satisfactory results.

Hyperlocal collaboration can catalyze behavior change: This model is leveraging the power of local communities by prioritizing their needs. Bringing together more than 1,000 hyperlocal non-governmental organizations (NGOs), the voices of thousands of community leaders, the energy of millions of volunteers, the patience of committed citizens, and the ownership of local governments, this collaborative effort is making visible and accelerating change. To collect In just one year, millions of lives have been positively impacted.

Last-Mile Convergence: This can be a revolutionary step towards achieving the new goal of inspiring and empowering Panchayats. This means that many government departments (education, health and agriculture etc.) will have to be shifted from a department-centric approach to a citizen-centric approach. For example, if a mother needs assistance for her daughter to go to school or needs health intervention, it is now about the girl child, and to ensure that various government departments work together at the back end. How can come so that state services can be facilitated. The standard of living actually reaches the citizens more easily.

miles to goScale and speed to significantly move the needle of change in India’s aspirational districts require innovative approaches from all players, be it the government, the development sector or corporate India. This calls for hyperlocal collaboration that will set up sustainable change drivers. In this model, solutions emerge locally and are also implemented locally.

Innovations should show the way. Let us remember that the residents of our aspirational districts comprise 16% of the entire population of the country, but receive only about 2% of the Corporate Social Responsibility funds. To fast track India’s journey towards becoming a developed nation, we must direct more resources towards India and the less privileged areas. The country’s private sector and philanthropists would be advised to prioritize aspirational districts as they extend support. The programs started in these can later be replicated in other parts of India.

The need to promote local micro-research and innovation in focal areas as a means to solve local problems assumes significance. The efficacy of such research projects would be greater if the local administration, bureaucracy and academia support them together, with increased employment opportunities and potential emergence of local youth as change catalysts.

Women empowerment a major objective: Women and girls comprise almost half the population, and providing an enabling environment to empower them by placing them at the center of local solutions can greatly accelerate India’s journey to join the ranks of developed nations. This calls for a renewed emphasis on education and healthcare, which requires effective implementation of the New Education Policy 2020 and the National Health Policy 2017.

Being inspirational is the new mantra: As Mahatma Gandhi once said, “The future depends on what you do today.” India started efforts to become a developed country a few years back, and a new ethos has been built in line with that national goal.

If India is to truly inspire other developing nations of the world, we must together build pathways that can take us from a developing nation to a developed nation – and from an aspirational nation to an inspiring nation.

Ajay Piramal and Manmohan Singh are the chairmen of the Piramal Group respectively; and Co-Founder, Kaivalya Education Foundation and Head, Aspirational Districts Collaborative.