India@77: Promises to keep, many giant leaps

For an ancient civilization like India, 77 years is the blink of an eye. But for a modern nation, it’s a significantly long period. Long enough for us to take note of, and marvel at the enormous strides that we’ve taken in this period. V S Naipaul famously wrote of a million mutinies in India. Today, we can just as aptly talk of a million revolutions, each one transforming the country in dramatic ways.
Numbers can serve as milestones that record how far we’ve come.To cite a few, example. But while statistics tell a tale, they don’t do justice to what is, ultimately a triumph of the human spirit in multiple fields of endeavour, from agriculture to space, from sporting arenas to corridors of academia, from factories to films. They don’t adequately capture the enormity of vision of the pioneering men and women who dared to dream; the resilience of those who overcame daunting odds to nurture formidable institutions, the vibrant energy of the innovators who continue to remake India, driven by the audacity of hope.

They don’t begin to encapsulate how brand India has become the softest of superpowers, simultaneously enlightening the world through the timeless wisdom of Yoga and Ayurveda, enchanting it with the magic of cinema, and dazzling it with the prowess of its huge diaspora, which is now contributing numerous global leaders, both in politics and business.
Today, as India celebrates the completion of 77 years since that unforgettable midnight tryst with destiny, we pay tribute to a few sectors in which we have made the most dramatic leaps. This is by no means a complete or exhaustive list of the myriad changes in a country of the size and complexity of India. But it is a humble effort to salute those who worked tirelessly to transform the country, and whose lives and works will continue to inspire India as it prepares to step into the ranks of developed nations.