Prime Minister Narendra Modi used the term ‘Amrit Kaal’ for the first time in 2021. In his address on India’s 75th Independence Day, he said, “The goal of Amrit Kaal is to take India and its citizens to new heights of prosperity. The next twenty-five years are India’s golden period. In the life of any nation, history gives an opportunity for the nation to progress rapidly in its development journey. The Amrit Kaal is going on in India right now, and this is the period in India’s history when the country is going to take a great leap. The goal of Amrit Kaal is to create a united India where the level of facilities does not divide villages and cities. The goal of Amrit Kaal is to create a fair India where the Government does not interfere unnecessarily in the lives of citizens. The goal of Amrit Kaal is to create a great India with the world’s modern and state-of-the-art infrastructure.
The past decade has seen some changes in the development and governance system of the country due to significant policy interventions, a large part of which is inspired by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), be it the joint efforts of India and France in 2015 through the International Solar Alliance or maybe the recent 33 per cent women’s reservation bill, which has been passed unanimously in the house. If India has had achievements in the past years, then some challenges also remain, but since we have recently celebrated our 75th Republic Day, then this is the right opportunity to remember the past achievements. First of all, if we mention in this sequence, the success of the JAM trinity is unprecedented (Jan Dhan and Aadhaar). Aadhaar, which is the largest biometric system in the world, can be called another success story. The majority of Indian adults are Aadhaar holders and carriers of a unique and protected identity. This movement has promoted social, economic, and technological inclusion at the national level; due to the use of Aadhaar, information and communication technologies have been important in bringing social and economic progress. By doing so, Governments are working hard to address concerns about equality and distributive justice.
There is no doubt that the pandemic has dealt a major blow to the global economic and development sector and created many hurdles in India’s growth and dream of reaching US dollar 3 trillion. Despite this, if we look at the GDP growth figures, where is the Gross Domestic Product 2019?It decreased from 2.68 billion US dollars in 2020 to 2.51 billion US dollars in 2020, whereas now it was 2.73 billion US dollars in 2021. India adopts Antyodaya’s economic and social development approach, which should be considered the real ‘socialism’ of India. Social and economic security not only helps in building a functioning state or nation building but also helps in the equitable distribution of wealth among different sections and communities of the society. To achieve this goal, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee was launched to provide employment to at least one member of every household whose adult members volunteer to do manual labour for at least 100 days in a financial year. The need of the hour is for the cities of the present to be able to adapt to future challenges. The National Smart Cities Mission, an urban renewal and wind-mobility campaign, aims to develop smart cities across the country and transform them into citizen-friendly and sustainable cities. This mission can help urban centres emerge as hubs of future regional development and economic growth.
It is necessary to provide health care to our citizens through Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana, which is called the world’s largest health guarantee scheme; the scheme aims to provide health care to poor and vulnerable families worth Rs 5 lakh per family per year. This scheme can be used as a replicable model in many other areas of the world.
India is one of the few countries that secured women’s voting rights soon after independence. Now, marking the 75th anniversary of independence, marking the era of Amrit Kaal, India has taken a leap from the right to vote to increase women’s participation in the right to representation in Parliament and Legislative Assemblies. To give women their due share in representative democracy, a provision of 33 per cent reservation was made. To put it very simply, the current minimum share of women power, which is half the population, was a flaw. Now, the Narendra Modi Government has prioritised this moral option and demonstrated a strong will to address this persistent shortcoming. The Nari Shakti Vandan Act will give impetus to gender justice balanced policy making in the legislative arena and will prove to be a milestone in the advancement of women.
Since ancient times, India has been famous in terms of education, be it Valabhi or Nalanda, study and discovery have always been given importance in India. Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan is an over-arching and comprehensive program for the school education sector, with the overarching goal of school effectiveness, measured in terms of equal opportunities for school education and equitable learning outcomes; it aims to improve school education and free India’s future from the curse of illiteracy, it helps facilitate the achievement of SDGs related to human capital. Skill India, the slogan of the National Skill Development Mission, is not quantity; its aim is to remove the ‘skill shortage’ present in the Indian economy. Indian economic policy focuses on the wide gap between demand and supply of skilled human capital to bridge the gap between ambition and achievement. There is a need to make this program more effective in building a sustainable India.
India has always been an agricultural country. The trend of eating wheat and rice has increased here only in the last few years, but before that, the country was rich in coarse grains. This claim is mentioned in many ancient documents and literature that Kalidas has written in his Abhigyan Shakuntlam. In his work, Rivarsha Kanva has been shown putting a kanji while bidding farewell to Shankavatala in the court of King Vistyanta. After the Green Revolution in the 1960s, millet began to be seen as food for rural and tribal communities, but in 2023, a diplomatic effort was made by the Government of India at the international level to promote millet.
Not only with the declaration of International Millet Year, the mainstream society has also started to understand and appreciate the long lost benefits of millet, however, Indian farmers have also been encouraged as there are agricultural benefits of growing millet and many self-help groups and start-ups have through “Shri Anna” it is becoming very popular in foreign countries also.
The aim of every Indian in the Amrit Kaal should be to make India a developed nation by 2047, the 100th year of independence. This approach covers various aspects of development, including economic growth, governance, environmental sustainability, science and space research and development, and social development. This is not just a celebration of the old India but a celebration of the aspirational and ambitious India of the present and future; the present India is ambitious and courageous and is competing at the global level. Our nation is dreaming big and working hard to turn it into reality.
