Over the last 5 years, the Indian government has made progress on many fronts — expanding access to banking to the rural population, dramatically improving sanitation, digital delivery of government subsidies, universal health insurance, and implementing the bankruptcy code. It has also accelerated existing initiatives to expand the national highway network, build metro train systems in major cities and provide gas/electricity to every Indian.

However, this is just the start. By 2030, India will be the 3rd largest economy in the world (after China and the US) in absolute terms, and bigger than the US after factoring in purchasing power parity. India needs to both accelerate growth (if the economy grows at 9 % vs. 7 % for a decade, the cumulative impact is 40% greater GDP), and also establish global leadership in strategic sectors (e.g. aviation, defense, semi-conductors, AI)

India has the opportunity to become one of the three global super powers along with China and the US. However, doing so will require India to pursue these 10 initiatives. While they are not equally important, they are inter-connected, and there is a virtuous cycle if all of these are implemented in parallel.

Set up 100 new cities. Over the next decade India’s urban population will almost double to ~600 M people, twice the total population of the US. While existing cities need to be upgraded to handle this explosion, India should also set up 100 new cities each with the infrastructure to support at least 1 M people each. Imagine cities that compare with Toronto and Paris in terms of livability, public transportation and beauty. Most people will agree with the need; the question boils down to how to get started. I think that in order to jump-start these new cities, the government should:

a) Acquire ~100 square kilometers of land for each new city (1/3 the population density of Mumbai), provide a high level design, and then auction development rights for infrastructure and real estate.

b) Move the national capital (and all state capitals) to one of these new locations and mandate that all major government offices (including armed forces, PSUs, railways, and other government agencies) must move 75%+ of their workforce to one of these new cities in the next 10 years

In conjunction, these 2 decisions will generate be revenue generating for the government, will de-congest existing cities, and will generate at least $1 T of incremental GDP. Establish India as a top 5 exporter of arms. India is already the world’s largest arms importer and Indian expenditure on defense will only grow (function of being surrounded by Pakistan and China). Currently, defense expenditure is a huge boat anchor on the economy, and on India’s foreign exchange reserves. If India can become a top 5 arms exporter, it can turn this boast anchor into a source of job and wealth creation. India has the scale, the talent (these days, defense equipment is software intensive), and the labor cost advantage to do so. India should insist that every major global arms supplier set up manufacturing in India, and become a net exporter. In addition, India should provide substantial incentives for Indian companies to become defense contractors. Position India as the #2 global manufacturer of electronics and technology intensive capital equipment. Every western nation is concerned about the concentration of manufacturing in China and the implications on national security. India should position itself as the only democratic alternative to China for manufacturing sensitive equipment. To do so, India needs to establish 4–5 large technology hubs along the coast (as part of the 100 new cities) that have world class infrastructure, and the requisite soft (e.g. regulatory, legal) infrastructure to enable global companies to quickly establish manufacturing locations in India. Establish India as a major air transportation hub (both cargo and passenger). While you will find Indians in almost every flight/airport, Indian airlines have minuscule market share globally. There are also very few direct flights from even Delhi or Mumbai to major global cities. This has implications for the cost of air travel from/to India, and on foreign exchange out-flows. India should establish 25 international airports, with the goal of having at least 50 direct flights from each airport. Collectively, India should have multiple direct flights to every major international airport in the world. While Indian should privatize Air India, it should provide the financial and regulatory support to enable 4–5 Indian airlines to become global players akin to Emirates. Take all Public sector companies public and use the proceeds to fund Universal Basic Income (UBI). The government has a massive amount of capital (~$1T) locked up in public sector enterprises (PSUs) and other entities like the Indian Railways. In addition, all of organizations tend to be inefficient in terms of output per unit of capital. The government should put the debate around privatization to rest and list all PSUs (including Indian Railways) on the stock markets and being to gradually divest its ownership such that its ownership drops below 25 % over the next 5 years. Furthermore, the government should deploy capital that is unlocked to fund provide universal basic income as an umbrella subsidy that replaces all other indirect subsidies. Establish Mumbai as a Top 10 global financial center. India needs to lower the cost of capital across the board. A key step to doing so is establish Mumbai as a global financial center on par with Singapore, Hong Kong and New York. This will require a host of regulatory changes, but is critical to India becoming a top 3 global economy. Listing all public sector enterprises will be a huge filip to the Mumbai’s standing as an global financial center, but its just the start. Require Indian PII data to be stored in India. Regulating and monitoring access to personally identifiable information (PII) will be critical in the coming decade. Furthermore, establishing large data centers in India is also strategically important to India. Therefore, India should mandate that Indian PII resides in India, and can only be accessed by employees that are based in India/employed by Indian subsidiaries of global entities. In order to facilitate this, India should offer incentives to set up global scale data centers in India. Make India the Global leader in nuclear power technology. Energy is India’s Achilles heel. Total energy needs will grow 2–4 X over the next decade. At the same time, India needs to reduce dependence on fossil fuels. Nuclear energy is solution — its cheap, safe, and can be scaled quickly, assuming regulatory changes. India needs to establish itself as the test bed for nuclear energy research and production. Make the Indian Government paperless. India needs to create a domestic market for software, while also automating government services to provide access to the 1B+ Indians. Furthermore, Indian bureaucracy needs to be reformed to make it more transparent and accountable. All of these objectives can be furthered by setting the goal of digitizing all government departments and making them paperless in the next 5 years. Build 10 of the world’s Top 100 universities in India. Indian students going overseas for education is one of the top 3 sources of foreign exchange outflows. Furthermore, its hard to imagine a top 3 economy without a commensurate strength in higher education and research. In recent years, India has taken baby steps in this direction by establishing Institutes of Eminence and enabling a few privately funded institutions like the ISB to flourish. However, India needs to do much more. For starters, it should offer incentives for the existing top 100 global universities to establish campuses/grant degrees in India. This will accelerate the creation of local talent and research infrastructure.

This is a long list and many might argue on the need for focus. However, I believe that for India to realize its potential, and once again become a global super power, all of these are critical and there is no better time than right now to get started!