Independent and self-reliant seem obviously correlated, almost synonymous. But even as we celebrate the 78th anniversary of India's independence, we're still scrambling to secure self-reliance. Being aatmanirbhar, above all, means being prosperous. To become a high-income economy in less than a generation, India needs to raise and hold its growth rate by 1.5 percentage points. Sustaining growth in the region of 8% has been an objective of successive governments, and it has come within reach through incremental reforms. By World Bank estimate, this requires the investment rate rising from 33.5% to 40% by 2035, and labour force participation rate from 56.4% to over 65%. Investment gains from deregulation, while employment will benefit from targeted intervention. GoI will have to make it easier to do business overall, especially in labour-intensive sectors.

Structurally, the economy is pivoting towards dynamic sectors that offer scope for accelerated growth like ecommerce, semiconductors, cloud services, cybersecurity, EVs, AI, space, nuclear energy and robotics. The economy is plugging into global innovation through these pathways. Scope to capture incremental economic output pulls in public and private investment and broad-based entrepreneurial interest. India will have to move beyond building local capacity and acquire global competitiveness in some of these segments over the next couple of decades.

The economy has endowments to keep growing at a higher rate if it channels investments into increasing productivity. The growth dividend must be more inclusive to achieve this. Lagging sectors must catch up through improved access to markets and capital. Sectors like tourism and construction represent large untapped potential for income and employment generation. These are expected to be domestic growth drivers and will build on the public investment in connectivity over the past decade. Credit flow to small enterprises that create most of jobs must improve. Aatmanirbharta means depending on oneself - independence, in the truest sense.