FUTURE OF INDIA

Our vision of Indias future should be both comprehensive and harmonious. It must rise
beyond the limitations of past trends, immediate preoccupations and pressing challenges to
perceive the emerging opportunities and concealed potentials. Most of all, our vision of
Indias future should serve to awaken in all of us a greater awareness of our cultural and
spiritual strengths - which formed the bedrock of our past achievements and should form the
foundation of our future accomplishments.

The compounded effect of achieving the

targeted annual GDP growth rate of 8.5 to 9 per cent over the next 20 years would result in a
quadrupling of the real per capita income and almost eliminating the percentage of Indians
living below the poverty line. This will raise India's rank from around 11th today to 4 th from
the top in 2020 among 207 countries given in the World Development Report in terms of
GDP. By 2020, the people of India will be more numerous, better educated, healthier and
more prosperous than at any time in our long history. Literacy is an indispensable minimum
condition for development, but it is far from sufficient. In this increasingly complex and
technologically sophisticated world, 10 years of school education must also be considered
an essential prerequisite for citizens to adapt and succeed economically, avail of social
opportunities and develop their individual potentials. The current enrolment rate for primary
education is around 77 per cent and for secondary education about 60 per cent. Achieving
100 per cent enrolment of all children in the 6 to 14 year age group is an ambitious but
achievable goal for 2020 that should be pursued as a top priority. Vision 2020 conceives of
India evolving into an information society and knowledge economy built on the edifice of
information and communication technology (ICT), of which telecommunications is the
springboard.

Rapid expansion and extension of the countrys fixed and mobile telecom

infrastructure is essential for stimulating growth of both the ICT sector and the economy as a
whole. The number of fixed telephone line services will multiply another seven-fold in the
next 18 years. As the fixed line market matures, more and more users will cross over to
mobile communications as well, spurring a mobile revolution in India
In a world that is fast globalizing and is supercharged with information, it calls for innovative
efforts on behalf of the change leaders to look, sound and feel different. INDIA Future of
Change is one such effort that seeks to emphasize Indias position as a catalyst of change.

INDIA Future of Change would endeavor to create and foster an awareness of

India among the future generations in all places that matter, all over the world.
"We no longer discuss the future of India. We say the future is India" IS WHAT ARE
VISION SHOULD BE.