How India may look in 2047

INDIA@2047 would have evolved beyond imagination. Not only are things moving fast, but also the pace of this movement is much faster than ever before, which makes it very difficult to visualise the exact shape of India that would emerge 25 years from now.

In the context of governance practices, when we seek to work out as to what would be the face of the Civil Services in 2047, we inadvertently tend to forget that by 2047, the Civil Services may have actually turned, by and large, ‘faceless’ and new tools emanating from AI and other technologically innovative means may have taken over the task of governance in a big way.

It is in keeping with the vision of PM Modi that he has been insisting on dwelling on the diverse contours of ‘Vision 2047’ which reflect the ‘Century India’ when it celebrates the 100th year of its Independence. Modi’s initiatives — like the setting up of Mission Karmayogi, based on the core principle of the shift of the civil servants’ working from ‘rule’ to ‘role’; setting up of a capacity-building commission as an instrument of dynamic upgradation of the governance services; and digital learning platform i-GOT — are, in fact, in tune with parameters that would be in place in the India of 2047.

And these precisely are the indicators of ‘Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav’ concept, which should inspire us to optimally utilise the next 25 years. The unprecedented scale at which several programmes have been implemented, like One-Nation, One-Ration Card, e-office, CPGRAMS and Passport Seva Kendras and e-hospitals, reflect the government’s conscious effort to adopt the ‘building to scale building to last’ approach.

We may see more of flattened organisations, collaborative and boundary-less governance, increased volunteerism, collaborative skills and citizen trust with engagement. The use of technologies, such as AI and machine-learning for simplifying the process of gathering, collating, classifying and automating information — which is important for improving transparency and efficiency — and improving the process of decision-making and block-chain to facilitate the process of recording transactions and tracking assets may become commonplace.

While the new ponderables are emerging at a rapid pace and changing the rules of the game, it is difficult to anticipate what could be the possible imponderables to emerge. For instance, 25 years back, courier delivery services and PVR Cinemas looked like revolutionary breakthroughs, but they have become almost irrelevant today. An unforeseen imponderable like the Covid pandemic suddenly struck as the biggest challenge for mankind. Such experiences would have to be borne in mind.

The immediate task is to create Future Indices to determine the benchmarks. The focus must be on the generation of public servants who have 25 years or more of service to put in, because they would be known as the architects of ‘Century India’.

(The writer is Union Minister of State for Science & Tech, Earth Sciences)