The welcome shift from rankings to lives

Viksit Bharat is a welcome citizen-oriented vision that hopefully will reposition our discourse about ourselves.

- RAMA BIJAPURKAR

It goes beyond the competitive chest-thumping of world rankings that has been in vogue in government and business these past few years—explicitly defining the goal of economic prosperity in people terms as providing opportunities and a high standard of living for all citizens (though several press reports have missed this point and read it the old way of aggregate gross domestic product and world rank improvement).

If read holistically, it shifts the discussion towards building and utilising the potential of all Indians, rather than being content with hitting favourable world rankings by utilising the potential of only a small segment.

Our world rankings are, without question, a stunning achievement that calls for monumental pride. However, to declare victory based on that and say there’s not much more to be done except hold the course and to dismiss as naysaying the view that there are still miles to go before we sleep, seems monumentally blinkered, if not callous. After the recent financial quarter ended, a flurry of business conferences were organised with discussions marked by this "tyranny of OR" (a phrase used by management guru C K Prahalad).