Viksit Bharat: Beyond economics

The economic ambition of Viksit Bharat is increasingly well defined: NITI Aayog documents picture an economy of about $30 trillion and income per head above $18,000 by 2047. This column welcomes that, and then asks something the targets leave open. What, measurably, should qualify India as developed? No universal threshold exists. Even the World Bank's high-income line is an income classification, not a certificate of a developed society. That gap, the founder argues, is an opportunity: India can write its own clear, measurable definition — one that describes the quality of a society as well as the scale of an economy.

Development is about quality

Seen through quality rather than size, the questions change: the quality of education and healthcare, of food and medicines, of air and water, of public services and everyday safety, of laws and — just as much — of their enforcement and the speed of justice. Then institutions, products, the natural environment, civic behaviour, social trust, and finally character.

Twenty-five years of growth: an honest audit

Income per person has risen more than five-fold in a quarter-century. Has the quality of the physical, institutional and social environment kept pace? The column's answer is: unevenly. It walks through the evidence with care about what each number can and cannot prove. Average PM2.5 levels stand at close to ten times the WHO guideline. Cities generate far more sewage each day than they can treat, and rivers carry the difference. The Economic Survey itself flags declining soil health. On food and medicines, more testing finds more violations without proving that adulteration has grown — yet a developed society should make safety a dependable expectation. Forest cover has inched up nationally, but only about a tenth of the six megacities is green. Registered crimes against women require cautious reading, but the development question is unavoidable. More than fifty million cases are pending in the lower courts. India scores 39 out of 100 on the Corruption Perceptions Index.

The conclusion is not that India's story has failed — far from it. It is that economic progress and quality-of-life progress do not move at the same speed automatically, which is precisely why both have to be measured.

The problem with averages

Per-capita income is an average, and an average can look impressive while millions lack the basics of a dignified life. The column proposes that Viksit Bharat define that life measurably — nutritious food, a decent home, clean water, sanitation, healthcare, education, safety, connectivity, a clean environment, and a fair chance to rise by one's own effort — so that development becomes a lived experience for the last person in the queue rather than a national statistic.

The economics of trust

Successful societies share two traits: justice delivered within a reasonable time, and trust. The founder makes the second one concrete. When a promise cannot be relied on, we add verification; when compliance cannot be assumed, supervision; when contracts are doubted, lawyers and paperwork. Every layer costs time, money and energy. A low-trust society carries a huge, largely invisible tax, and the reverse is equally true. This is the character dividend of his earlier column, now given a balance sheet.

He therefore proposes a fourth kind of national investment beside the physical, the digital and the technological: character infrastructure — which, for business and for global investors weighing governance and the predictability of contracts, is competitiveness infrastructure too. Education has to carry part of this: an engineer's competence is only as useful as the integrity with which it is exercised. The Institute's work on a Goodness Index and on Personal Social Responsibility is described, modestly, as one approach among the many that will be needed.

Five dimensions of Viksit Bharat

1. Economic prosperity and opportunity — income, productivity, employment, enterprise, innovation, resilience.
2. Human development and quality of life — education, healthcare, nutrition, skills, longevity, well-being.
3. Institutions, governance and rule of law — justice, accountability, transparency, effective public services.
4. Social and environmental quality — clean air and water, sustainability, safety, inclusion, harmony, civic responsibility.
5. Character, values and goodness — integrity, honesty, compassion, responsibility, fairness, respect, trustworthiness, stewardship, moral courage.

The fifth looks hardest to measure, and the column answers the objection directly: difficult does not mean immeasurable. Character at the level of a society is not assessed by judging individuals. It can be read from observable indicators — interpersonal and institutional trust, volunteering and civic participation, rule-following where enforcement is weak, professional integrity, the treatment of shared spaces, citizens' perceptions of fairness. The purpose is not to reduce goodness to a number but to make visible what conventional measures leave out. Nor is the fifth dimension ornamental: institutions cannot have integrity without people of integrity, and cities cannot stay clean without responsible citizens.

A richer India — and a better one

Viksit Bharat, the column ends, should mean a richer India that is also healthier, safer, more trustworthy and happier, in which the last person in the queue lives with dignity and hope. Define the destination clearly and it becomes possible to measure where the country stands, see where it falls short, and close the gaps. In 2047 there should be two questions: has India become one of the world's most prosperous economies — and has it built one of the world's finest and most trusted societies? When both can be answered yes, the founder writes, Viksit Bharat will have been built in the truest sense.