<p>The Russia-Ukraine conflict will have a long-term impact on commodity prices, the China-Taiwan conflict could further deepen the semiconductor crisis, inflation is significantly impacting the US and Europe, all this happening on the back of the pandemic makes a perfect recipe for a global recession.</p>.<p>In the midst of this turmoil, India needs to continue to look for opportunities to grow its GDP, create millions of jobs, and also lead the world on tackling climate change. The challenge for India is that we need to double every aspect of infrastructure and public service to provide a minimum standard of living to our citizens. And we need to accomplish this in the most environmentally sensitive way. These areas of doubling will also provide the much-needed jobs at various skill levels:</p>.<p>Double power generation capacity (to 800 GW) while ensuring high plant availability, fuel availability, modernised equipment, addressing pilferage issues, improving last-mile infrastructure, and enabling smart measurements. Diesel gensets in India at homes and in factories hide many a shortfall in our power generation. Claims of having a power surplus fly in the face of our lived experiences. Remember that even after doubling, India will be way below the world average energy consumption on a per capita basis. We can achieve growth the most efficiently and better than any other nation, but every GDP point growth and every job added will need its cost in energy added.</p>.<p><strong>Read | <a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/opinion/second-edit/rate-hikes-take-time-to-work-1133513.html" target="_blank">Rate hikes take time to work</a></strong></p>.<p>Double healthcare spends in India from 4% of GDP to 8% of GDP. Fund equipment at all primary and secondary care centres for women, infant and elderly care. Train and leverage more nurse practitioners – have every employee in healthcare working at the top of their skillsets. Develop new modalities for rural sectors for early detection and prevention/treatment. Popularising yoga, exercise, and outdoor sports are also a good measure for a healthy nation.</p>.<p>Double the internet (OTT) reach into education, media, and entertainment to the next billion. The costs of content delivery are not sustainable for profitable business globally. India could lead the way in providing public content delivery infrastructure and leverage efficiencies of scale. Regulators can also look beyond issues of privacy to issues of online addiction and ensure that businesses operate with the comprehensive interest of consumers in mind, and not just of their wallet.</p>.<p>Double the sewer treatment facilities; double usable water (currently 1,500 cubic meters per capita per year). Much of our sewer flows untreated into our lakes. The mandates on housing complexes and office complexes to treat the sewer is part of the solution, but public treatment facilities need to be augmented significantly. Our lakes need to be clean, swimmable, and attract visitors.</p>.<p>Double R&D investment from public and private sources to 2% of GDP. As our GDP grows, the percentage of R&D investment is shrinking. Today, the estimate is that it is at 0.7%. Of this, a majority share comes from public research. The government has initiated prime programmes such as the TDF and IDEX to support research. We need these programmes to further mature on transparency of process and the outcomes.</p>.<p>Double efficient public transportation. Complete the city metro projects to make them usable. Make it much more convenient to take public transportation rather than private vehicles. Start with the key metros, and unashamedly adapt the best from countries like Singapore.</p>.<p>Double our agricultural productivity without damaging our soil and water. India has one of the lowest productivities per acre of land. India is also a country which has one of the largest dependencies on agriculture for jobs and GDP. Precision agriculture and farm automation will enable this productivity increase. Farmers have supply chain issues that need to be eliminated.</p>.<p>Accomplishing the above over a well-planned decade will allow us to double the job opportunities and train 500 million workers to contribute to power generation, water treatment, healthcare, agricultural mechanisation, and public transportation.</p>.<p>Wishful thinking? Maybe not!</p>
<p>The Russia-Ukraine conflict will have a long-term impact on commodity prices, the China-Taiwan conflict could further deepen the semiconductor crisis, inflation is significantly impacting the US and Europe, all this happening on the back of the pandemic makes a perfect recipe for a global recession.</p>.<p>In the midst of this turmoil, India needs to continue to look for opportunities to grow its GDP, create millions of jobs, and also lead the world on tackling climate change. The challenge for India is that we need to double every aspect of infrastructure and public service to provide a minimum standard of living to our citizens. And we need to accomplish this in the most environmentally sensitive way. These areas of doubling will also provide the much-needed jobs at various skill levels:</p>.<p>Double power generation capacity (to 800 GW) while ensuring high plant availability, fuel availability, modernised equipment, addressing pilferage issues, improving last-mile infrastructure, and enabling smart measurements. Diesel gensets in India at homes and in factories hide many a shortfall in our power generation. Claims of having a power surplus fly in the face of our lived experiences. Remember that even after doubling, India will be way below the world average energy consumption on a per capita basis. We can achieve growth the most efficiently and better than any other nation, but every GDP point growth and every job added will need its cost in energy added.</p>.<p><strong>Read | <a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/opinion/second-edit/rate-hikes-take-time-to-work-1133513.html" target="_blank">Rate hikes take time to work</a></strong></p>.<p>Double healthcare spends in India from 4% of GDP to 8% of GDP. Fund equipment at all primary and secondary care centres for women, infant and elderly care. Train and leverage more nurse practitioners – have every employee in healthcare working at the top of their skillsets. Develop new modalities for rural sectors for early detection and prevention/treatment. Popularising yoga, exercise, and outdoor sports are also a good measure for a healthy nation.</p>.<p>Double the internet (OTT) reach into education, media, and entertainment to the next billion. The costs of content delivery are not sustainable for profitable business globally. India could lead the way in providing public content delivery infrastructure and leverage efficiencies of scale. Regulators can also look beyond issues of privacy to issues of online addiction and ensure that businesses operate with the comprehensive interest of consumers in mind, and not just of their wallet.</p>.<p>Double the sewer treatment facilities; double usable water (currently 1,500 cubic meters per capita per year). Much of our sewer flows untreated into our lakes. The mandates on housing complexes and office complexes to treat the sewer is part of the solution, but public treatment facilities need to be augmented significantly. Our lakes need to be clean, swimmable, and attract visitors.</p>.<p>Double R&D investment from public and private sources to 2% of GDP. As our GDP grows, the percentage of R&D investment is shrinking. Today, the estimate is that it is at 0.7%. Of this, a majority share comes from public research. The government has initiated prime programmes such as the TDF and IDEX to support research. We need these programmes to further mature on transparency of process and the outcomes.</p>.<p>Double efficient public transportation. Complete the city metro projects to make them usable. Make it much more convenient to take public transportation rather than private vehicles. Start with the key metros, and unashamedly adapt the best from countries like Singapore.</p>.<p>Double our agricultural productivity without damaging our soil and water. India has one of the lowest productivities per acre of land. India is also a country which has one of the largest dependencies on agriculture for jobs and GDP. Precision agriculture and farm automation will enable this productivity increase. Farmers have supply chain issues that need to be eliminated.</p>.<p>Accomplishing the above over a well-planned decade will allow us to double the job opportunities and train 500 million workers to contribute to power generation, water treatment, healthcare, agricultural mechanisation, and public transportation.</p>.<p>Wishful thinking? Maybe not!</p>