Elections in Bharat: PM Modi likely to win a third term

Opinion

A Personal Perspective

By Dr R Neerunjun Gopee

In an article on Rediff, News titled ‘Exciting World of Data Science’ by Ajit Balakrishnan, an internet entrepreneur, he writes: ‘… as I stroll through my neighbourhood in Bombay, I can see small roadside fruit vendors and fish sellers display a QR code near their coir baskets and ready to accept digital payments. Aadhaar now is carried by 1.2 billion Indians. Nearly 300 million Indians now do online shopping. And they all seem to have made this transition to the digital world enthusiastically and happily.’

Last year in Bangaluru and New Delhi, which I was visiting after several years, I had the same experience: from the roadside fruit/vegetable seller to the multifarious other outlets, my nephew made all payments using the QR code. I must confess that not only was this a revelation to me, but also that I myself have not quite got used to this now common and generalized mode of transaction there. But I guess I will have to sooner than later if I want to be part of this modern and future Bharat that I am bound to visit again.

Indian election campaign is currently in full swing. Pic -South China Morning Post

The advent of the internet and social media has made it possible to track in real time via online sources happenings across the world, and that is the case too as regards the general elections in Bharat now under way, with a first phase completed, to end with the 7th phase on June 5. I regularly follow the developments that have taken place and the progress made there that I have also had the occasion to experience personally. The achievements of the NDA led by Prime Minister Modi for nearly ten years have been tremendous.

The first thing that comes to mind is the fact that from 10th place when Modiji took over, Bharat has now climbed to the 5th position in the global economy and, growing at the highest rate among major economies at over 7%, it is on an aspirational course to climb further to 3rd place by 2030.

From online sources we learn that this has been made possible through reform of the financial system by, amongst others, implementation of the GST, which made doing business much easier by consolidating several different taxes into one Goods and Services Tax, thus eliminating barriers to inter-state trade. Further, many schemes have enhanced investment in the country, leading to financial stability and increasing GDP.

The QR code mentioned above has become an integral part of India’s retail businesses and, along with demonetization, has accelerated online transactions. It forms part of the UPI system, which is the most successful payment system in the world, with hundreds of millions of users and billions of transactions every month. There is also the Rupay card scheme which includes Mauritius, though which payments can be made instead of using e.g. Visa and Mastercard.

Undoubtedly, an outstanding achievement is Covid handling, which included the CoWIN platform (Covid Vaccine Intelligence Network) to administer the vaccination programme, development, and production of several vaccines in the country, administering free of cost over 2 billion made-in-India doses within a year. Besides becoming self-reliant in medical items like personal protection equipment and ventilators which mainly were imported earlier, the government made grants of almost 200 M vaccines doses to nearly 82 countries to kickstart their vaccination as they were unable to procure them initially, in addition to selling them afterwards.

Among other achievements, one can mention abrogation of Article 370 which has facilitated investment and tourism in Kashmir, along with other developments in healthcare, education, empowerment of women, as well as a significant drop in terrorist-linked activities, etc.

There is massive development in the infrastructure sector in the country, with the rapid construction of highways, expressways, and other roads (38 km per day), massive expansion of the railway network and introduction of the made-in-India Vande Bharat Express train, and the Udaan scheme in civil aviation. Electrification of railways is proceeding apace.

Tens of thousands of villages, earlier left out, now have electricity, and they have also had improvements in the availability and quality of water. This is something that people in developed countries take for granted, but the mind-boggling scale of the needs for water in a country of 1.4 billion people baffles the imagination. I illustrate this with a personal example – when I was in New Delhi for my internship in 1971, its population was about 2 million. Today this figure is closer to 12 million if not more – while ours is a mere 1.2 M and is on the decline! – and yet every Delhiite has access to water. No need to comment on our own water supply situation here! So, before we criticize Bharat, let us have some humility!

Apart from these few developments, Bharat has also made great strides in inclusion of northeastern states, in foreign policy, and in indigenisation of the defence sector. Each topic requires a whole book to itself, and External Affairs Minister Subramaniam Jaishankar’s two books: ‘The India Way’ and ‘Why Bharat Matters’ are a good place to start understanding ‘Vixit Bharat.’

Perhaps the two iconic events that stand out are the successful Chandrayaan Mission that landed a vehicle on a hitherto hidden region of the moon – a first to add to the achievement of also being the fourth country to land on the moon – and the rebuilding and pran partishtha of the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya.

No wonder the overwhelming feeling all over Bharat is that Modiji should come back…

Mauritius Times ePaper Friday 26 April 2024