Republic @75: Transfer of Power 2.0

New Delhi: As the republic turns 75, a brand new transfer of power can be amply noted. The privileged urban classes, linear beneficiaries of colonial acumen, are giving way to middle India, in more ways than can be possibly imagined.

Out of the 759 million active internet users, 399 million are from rural areas and growing faster than their urban counterparts. 

UPI transactions in rural and semi-urban areas grew by 118% in 2023, compared to the previous year. Around 67% of Jan Dhan accounts are in rural regions while 70% of online shoppers are from Tier 3 centres ( Bain & Co). 

Kearney expects 60% of online shopping from Tier 2 and downwards while rural areas may contribute 20%. Consumption, driven by technology and access to banking, is an empowered representative of this shift in the ‘majority’ denomination. 

Education is yet another leading indicator. Projections indicate that Indians will spend in excess of $70 billion in overseas education, the upswing coming from the lower tiers. Demand for online education surged by 37% in 2023 from such centres, due to access and awareness. 

Healthcare chains are now focussing on tertiary care in smaller locations, abdicating the metro-centric hub and spoke model. 

Aiding every other factor is unprecedented connectivity - Over 150 active airports and a rapid spread of terrestrial infrastructure. 

While employment and primary education remain areas of addressable concern, the shift of power is real and here to stay.

Thought leadership in India was historically a metrocentric monopoly cum imperial legacy, due to blatant reasons. The first generation of autonomous ‘Indian’ professionals, across private and public domains, were clearly handpicked by the departing powers, in terms of training and assignment. 

Doctors, engineers, lawyers, scientists, educators, administrators, military folks and even businessmen were often carefully handed over to the baby nation - entrusted with deliberate continuity as much as symbolic change. 

Continuity, in terms of technical expertise as well as an ideological extension of the earlier worldview - that classes of privilege are designed to govern while the underwhelming mortals persist on enforced payroll. 

Field Marshal Manekshaw graduated from the then-colonial Indian Military Academy in 1932, fought in World War 2 and many illustrious peers were from Sandhurst. 

Dr BC Roy was FRCS and FRCP while H J Kania, the first Indian Chief Justice of the Supreme Court was a reputed barrister. Sir Ardeshir Dalal, still with the Viceroy’s Executive Council, set up the CSIR and arguably established the blueprint for the IIT movement. 

In 1947, there were more than 500 non-European ICS officers who formed the core of the IAS and the Pakistani equivalent. Not just the anglophile Tatas, but the pioneering Indian business houses gained from Western wisdom, formally and informally.

The pattern of scientifically emulating imperial best practices continued for decades, faithful emulation by the immediate next generations. 

Therefore, the four metros and Bangalore logically became the hub of modern India. Attracting the finest talent from the subsequent tiers, to be ‘initiated’ in mainstream urban existence and naturally, lead the affluence and consumption ratings. Thus, accelerating a conscious divide between Bharat and India, a subject of many imaginative discourses. 

Post-liberalisation, a few telling changes altered the narrative. The first was a continuing pattern of brain drain, the children of such ‘elite’ metro citizens joyfully selected the meritocratic excesses of the first world. Thus, setting in motion a cycle of continuing resettlement, as generations expanded. 

Equally valuably, India became a top-notch higher education centre, institutes multiplying in tandem with opportunities. Change was clearly in the air and the use cases multiplied. 

Homegrown entrepreneurship evolved into big business and even globally manicured multinationals started to face the heat. 

The D2C segment is a brisk anecdotal prop as the 100-odd brands are invariably local. 

UPI, the JAM trinity and Nilekani’s Beckn Protocol are being lapped up by the first world. 

Pop culture is increasingly Indian as we reconnect with roots, from music to cinema to tourism. 

Jugaad, a ‘sotto voice’ dirty word is now a mainstream innovation, liberated from the shackles of conventional engineering captivity. 

Thinking, across the spectrum, is being led by truly independent Indians, often first-generation and not familial successes. Merit is now operating currency, delinked from the hostile filters of degree and pedigree. 

Consciously, there is diminished reverence for the original benchmark, the first world. 

Many consider erstwhile domains of relocation as attractive tourist locations and the new-age heroes are working abroad as bosses, not vassals. 

Westerners routinely seek employment, in and from our shores, while we dictate the terms. 

Our self-confidence is now encashable stock in trade and the content for development is proudly indigenous, the "Make in India" way beyond just politics. 

A study from 2019 by BCG confirms that Indians across pop stratas are increasingly thinking alike, acting similarly and choosing based on rational evaluation. Technology has acted as a prolific leveller, supercharging the acquisition of genuine independence, in the mind and in the heart. 

The freedom that our forefathers fought so hard for is closer to reality than ever before. Not just the symbolic change of national identities but a genuine structural rebooting of the integrated ecosystem - driven ever more by the heart and not the facade of the nation. 

Gandhian values in a rebooted format, with sustainable affluence being a crucial adhesive, access denied to none. Undeniably, we have our problems as is the case with every thriving democracy, but equally, we are cruising on happy momentum.

As a logical sequence, a few other things need to happen. Management use cases must originate in India and no longer can we be subject to American hand-me-downs, alas still a habit. The same is true for engineering, medicine, science and all else, as the homeland becomes a stand-alone reference cum benchmark. 

Over time, a credible centre for universal learning, as the heady acumen of intellect and application adds up to a formidable cocktail. 

Professional protocols, across disciplines, will become India-centric and not west-cloning and this may have its share of pitfalls which arrive with the territory. 

Technology for human betterment, AI et al, may seek credibility from this market due to the sheer scale and variety of adoption. English continues as a national unifier for functional factors and not a mindset entrapment. 

So, what happens to the remaining vestiges of the Raj, in terms of continuing mindset and attitude? 

Orange marmalade must give way to Mission Millets, not just on the table, as the tables have indeed turned. 

A healthy equilibrium of looking inwards and seeking outwards must continue but clearly in role reversal mode. 

Bob Sternfels, CEO of Mckinsey, insists that this will be India's century, with 20% of the world’s working population by 2047. Surely, a glorious way to celebrate the century of our precious being.