INDIA – Transformative education is the building block of our national aspiration to be a global super soft power. India’s ultimate destiny will be to educate more than a billion competent and compassionate citizens for the world’s stage. The new policies and practices of the Indian education system will need to bridge the disconnect between education and the real life of people on the cusp of what we might describe as the new cognitive revolution. By and large, for seventy-five long years, our existing education system has served in churning out clerks, coders, lawyers, engineers, doctors, magistrates, managers, and policemen. Education policies in India have barely reached the farmer, the bus driver, the scavenger, or the carpenter. That is precisely why this nation that was once the world’s pioneer in the creation of wisdom and wealth, a Vishwa Guru, is still a perennial underachiever in educational excellence.
Educational institutions in India will have to be centres of fulfilment. The Sanskrit expression for fulfilment is Purnatwa. The diversity of educational and knowledge hubs of India will have to serve as fulfilment centres for varied aspirations and talents. These fulfilment centres would admit learners on the basis of equity, inclusiveness, access, and excellence. Only then the gold rush for foreign degrees and overseas education will cease.
In 2047, the Indian story is likely to be vastly different from what it is today. The new Indian mind is being shaped in real-time as one writes this. In 2021, there were 487 million WhatsApp users in India alone, making it the leading country in terms of WhatsApp audience size. Second-ranked Brazil had 118.5 million, which is less than a quarter of the Indian users. The billions of text messages transacted through WhatsApp and other social media platforms are shaping the cognitive map of India. The new Indian narratives around digital start-ups and Incredible India are being scripted right now and here. Our stories serve as our most significant cognitive maps. The stories script into one integral web the world of information, emotion, consciousness, and context in which India is bound to thrive.
Our Knowledge Age has heightened the global competition for minds. Attracting talent and intellectual capital from around the world is seen as a potent tool for enhancing a nation’s soft power. India has had a long and impactful influence as Vishwa Guru, the educator of the world. Nalanda and Takhkhasilā were known far and wide as the propagators of wisdom. In order for our educational institutions to serve as the attractors for knowledge seekers, a large number of our diplomatic outposts around the world should showcase our prowess through our centres of excellence in knowledge. The IIT and IIM professors should explore setting up educational enterprises overseas. The quality of educational infrastructure, internships, and scholarships for foreign students will pave the way for India to emerge in the top 2 global destination for education in 2047.
By 2047, our internal harmony and quest for national integration will be helped by creating multiple Centres of Inclusion (COIs). They can work with cultural and educational institutions to research and implement what works for the greater integration of India.
The value and vibrancy of India’s soft power assets have cast their influence throughout Asia and the larger world. Hieun Tsang’s chronicles of his pilgrimage to India are described in the Chinese classic that is interestingly called ‘Journey to the West.’ India was the aspirational West for China at one point in time.
In the post-pandemic world, there will be a decisive power shift in the world of enterprise from producing to innovating and from consuming to caring. The catastrophic aftermath of mindless consumerism will only make the cry for mindful and compassionate capitalism a little shriller in the years to come.
Indian civilization ethos is primed for soft power leadership in this century. The ancient aphorism from the Rigveda, Bahujana Sukhaya Bahujana Hitaya Cha—for the happiness of the multitude, for the welfare of the many—sums up India’s vision for 2047. India’s mission is not just to be among the best in the world but also to be the best for the world.
The enlightened rishis of India have left behind a great Indian dream. Today’s India has some of the world’s best doctors, engineers, and managers. We are now waiting for our own unicorns—our great dreamers—to show up!
