Chandrababu Naidu proposes five strategies for India to become global leader by 2047

VISAKHAPATNAM: Former chief minister and TDP supremo Nara Chandrababu Naidu strongly believes that if five strategies are adopted, India can lead the world while the Telugus will play a major role in global development.

Unveiling his favourite Vision-2047 document in the presence of youth, intellectuals and a mammoth gathering at the MGM Park in the Port City of Visakhapatnam marking the Independence Day, Naidu felt that India was expected to be the third largest country in the world in economic growth while in other sectors the nation would be growing to the number two position by 2047.

But if five most important strategies were adopted, India would be the global leader, he mentioned in the document. "Experts say it is the Decade of India, but we need to convert it as the Century of India," Naidu felt in the document.

The former chief minister said five more important strategies were to be adopted for India, Indians, Andhra Pradesh and Telugus to achieve the intended growth by 2047, which included the P-4 model. Explaining about these five strategies in his Vision-2047 document that he unveiled on Tuesday, Naidu said that the first strategy was on energy, which he felt was a game-changer.

Explaining in detail, he said that in power sector reforms adopted in late ‘90s, Andhra Pradesh was a leader. The cost of solar power dropped from Rs 8 per unit to Rs 2 with the solar wind and pumped energy generation system adopted by the State. "Even now we will try to reduce the power charges by 30 per cent by setting up hydrogen and ammonia hubs along with research centres in various parts of the State," the TDP supremo explained.

The second strategy was on achieving water-secureIndia, he said. Predicting more demand for water as the population was growing rapidly and urbanisation along with industrialisation were equally moving forward at a very fast pace, Naidu said this problem could easily be overcome with inter-linking of rivers, for which Andhra Pradesh was a model State.

Recalling that then prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee constituted a committee on inter-linking of rivers, the former chief minister said that only Andhra Pradesh could complete the Govari and the Krishna link in a record time through Pattiseema Lift Irrigation project. He felt that if inter-linking of rivers was taken up, the drought-prone Rayalaseema would turn into a fertile land through Pothireddipadu head regulator while all the seasonal crops could be supplied with irrigation water even in the remotest corners of the State.

Coming to the third strategy, he said that digital technology would certainly play a major role in the progress of the nation. Observing that the country had an advantage of digital public goods by the Government like Aadhar, bank accounts, UPI, health-vaccine, mobile phones e-rupee and others, the TDP supremo was of the opinion that digital technology could be brought in all walks of life.

Drones, robotics, quantum computing and others would totally change all walks of life including agriculture, health, education, governance and transport, he said.

The deep technology would have a major impact which would increase productivity and efficiency while everyone will have access to digital goods, he felt.

Coming to the major strategy which was P-4, Naidu explained in the vision document that demographic management played a major role in achieving the targets. Observing that India had more working population than dependent population, the former chief minister said that the earning population in the age group of 15 to 59 was fast declining, particularly in the States of Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh while population in the same age group was increasing in States like Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.

Giving the statistics of median age and elder age population of various countries and in various States in India, Naidu said that the country should learn from the issues faced by Europe, Japan, and the United States on demographic disadvantage. He strongly felt that India should manage population to maintain demographic dividend and it should begin immediately as the country had a major population in the age group of 20-25. "Educate them on various skills to become an asset to their own family and the nation thereby serving the global community," he explained.

People, public, private partnership, which he termed as P-4, the former chief minister said each family should be empowered to access the best available opportunities. Each family should be rated on its capital, using technology and its vision depending on which short-term, medium and long-term action plans should be formulated.

Besides the welfare schemes that were already under implementation, supported by the government was needed and ultimately P-4 would result in happiness and wellbeing of every family which ultimately would help the society resulting in no-poverty, Mr Chandarbabu Naidu explained.

Finally about the last and fifth strategy, he expressed the hope that the Indian economy would grow as an example to the global economy while the citizens of the country would grow into global citizens. Pointing out that Indians were the biggest diaspora globally, about 1.8 crore, he said that the Non-Resident Indians living in the US were the richest in the world.

Naidu was of the opinion that Telugu people had the best advantage that they could easily move to any place and thus India should target making the diaspora to reach 10 crore from the present 1.8 cr. Thus their investments globally would also grow heavily and they should be directed to invest back in the country, participate in P-4 and support their motherland in all spheres.