India Towards Superpower

Do not rely on terms or names. Superpower need not be the aim, but become, at least an economic power. Having followed, democracy as a way of governance, first set-right the democratic order or principle. Parliament is the most powerful institution in our democracy. Allow it to function.The division of the ruling party and the opposition, has made the parliament non-functional. It may be good for democracy, but not for development.

Many of the development programs, halted or delayed, due to the non-cooperation of the opposition parties. It has been there before, and appear more now. Alternative to democracy, may not be a valid suggestion, but disturbance to the democratic functioning have to be corrected. If the only aim of the opposition parties is to stop the functioning of the parliament, then there is no need for an opposition.

There is no scope for India to become a self-defensive, or self sustaining economic power, unless the malaise in the parliament as well as in the state functioning improved, or made functioning properly. Under the cover of checks and balances, many of the development activities are halted, due to faulty democratic process. We may have to set-right the system, before trying to move further.

India has been missing chances for rapid economic growth in a world where that is defined as double digit growth rates sustained for a decade. We were held back by a business-unfriendly ecosystem, largely due to unreformed babudom, and to some extent due to partly-reformed political cronyism.

We are talking of reforming babudom, which needs a very deep surgery. I have written many times about it on Quora. But that would only be eliminating a carry-over cancerous tumor from the past. Just doing that will not open the floodgates to manufacturing happening in India. We would still get some of it. But the days of manufacturing outsourcing is nearing the sunset, with technologies like robotics and 3D printing growing at blazing speeds, changing the entire game. If we continue to plan to become the manufactory of the world, it will be like our hockey skills that became obsolete when the game changed to astro turfs.

The world economy is moving toward post-capitalism to a knowledge-based one. India has been nibbling at it. Our infotech sector started by being a supplier of qualified labor for this, and has been slowly moving up the food chain. There are big prospects available in this in areas as diverse as manufacture and control of robots & other automation tools, tele-diagnosis and tele-health care (even robotic surgery), development of science frontiers in agriculture, foods and their preservation, intelligent clothing, and many more.

We need to develop skills in these areas.

But even that will not be enough. Our drag today is our lack of civility, our boorish, almost beast like behavior. Instead of evolving as our country grows more and more crowded, we seem to sliding back rapidly into a "might is right" stage, whether it is in forming queues or driving or walking or hygiene or even our own personal safety & security. Most Indians seem to have passively delegated these basic personal responsibilities to government, as if we need a cop to stop us from honking or jumping signals or crossing the road as pedestrians. Nothing, absolutely nothing, will work if these basic requirements of existence are not met voluntarily by each of us.

How can India become a economic superpower ?

This is going to be a little hard to digest, but it is absolutely necessary.

• Stop being so mad about gold: India has a very less amount of gold reserves. Because people demand so much gold, India has to import gold from other countries such as US, South Africa, etc, thus reducing its foreign reserves and ultimately degrading the rupee in terms of dollar. This severely affects the GDP of India too. According to me, Gold is a safety option, not an investment. Investment is something which grows over time. However, considering that hardly anyone actually sells gold after buying it except for dire situations, Gold is just a safe-resort but not actually an investment.
• Try and reduce consumption of foreign goods : This hits the most. Many people are so awed by branded items that they don't think of anything else as a buyable option. However, that attitude needs to change seriously. In things where we can(e.g. daily necessities etc), branded items are not much different from non-branded items. These foreign industries ultimately sell the same product at twice their buying price by exploiting the minnows involved in the production process. This leads to an atmosphere of distrust and depression among the people at the root level because they are not paid enough which leads to the increasing number of suicides and various other colossal results. 
• Encourage local manufacturers: Basically, an extension of last point. Local entrepreneurs are supposed to have less profit margins because of threats to their existence owing to fierce competition. So, there is a hope that there can be less corruption. This factor has a big hand in China's impeccable growth.
• Discourage corruption: This is more realist than it seems. A corruption free  country feeds all the people involved in the distribution process fairly. Singapore is growing on these lines only.
• Try and create employment, especially for villagers: This may sound idealist but it is not. The benefits of employment are immense. More than 60% of India is made up of villages where people are mostly occupied with agriculture. There are a lot of cases in which more people are present on the field than required. Instead if given a job, we will improve our economy along with empowering them This is a great step for a growing economy for India.

Source - Quara