Butchers of Sopore and Birmingham

Nine years of calm before icy storm

Kashmir turns crimson with blood of Pandits

AN UN-ISLAMIC KIDNAPPING AND CHAOS IN THE VALLEY

The illusion of azaadi and Kashmir’s historic deception

How Pak's terror policy evolved in Kashmir

Birth of social media jihadists, death of Article-370

Operation Sindoor: When Indian missiles rained on Pak terror parade

<div class='ite_mg_banner ads__container'><div class='it_mg_bnrBox'><div class='ite_bnr_cont'><div class='ite_cont_dtl'> <h4>Subscribe to India Today Print + Digital. Your First Month Is On Us. <span class='bold_text'> ₹299/month</span> thereafter. Cancel anytime.</h4><a href='https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.dev?url=https%3A%2F%2Fsubscriptions.intoday.in%2Findiatoday%3Futm_source%3Dtop-web-banner ' class='ite_subscribe_btn origin_conscent_url' target='_blank'>SUBSCRIBE</a></div></div></div></div>

US Election coverage

India

World

NewsMo

Fact Check

Programmes

Match Schedule

Teams

Player Stats

Match Report

LIVE SCORES

<p><amp-img src="https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.dev?url=https%3A%2F%2Fakm-img-a-in.tosshub.com%2Findiatoday%2Fdashboard%2Falpha%2Feconomic-policy-author.jpg%3FVersionId%3DlpiFBSMQXhNP9Xi81UojMuLZd0XORUV7" alt="" height="425" width="650" class="wrap-body-img" layout="fixed"></amp-img><span><strong>Food Security</strong></span></p><p>In 1952, Jawaharlal Nehru had said &ldquo;every&shy;thing else can wait, not agriculture&rdquo;. Policy shortcomings and a rising population worsened scarcity, leaving India dependent on Harry Truman&rsquo;s India Emergency Food Act and PL480 assistance. In 1963, Nehru told Parliament: &ldquo;We cannot live on doles from other count&shy;ries.&rdquo; As it turned out, in 1966, as India was caught in two successive years of famine, the Lyndon B. Johnson government corralled supplies and tagged India a &lsquo;ship to mouth&rsquo; economy. Lal Bahadur Shastri and Indira Gandhi empowered C. Subramaniam and M.S. Swaminathan to induct hybrid seeds to ramp up yield and engi&shy;neer the Green Revolution. With a harvest of 316 MT in 2022, India is among the world&rsquo;s top three food producers.</p><p><span><strong>The Amul Model</strong></span></p><p>In 1951, India produced 17 million tonnes of milk a year with per capita availability of 5 ounces daily. Scarcity—in milk, its products, baby food—remained real for decades and visible in the quantum of imports. Verghese Kurien, the milkman of India, had established the viability of milk coopera&shy;tives as early as in 1952. Even though every prime minister from Nehru to Indira Gandhi recognised the Kurien model, the idea could not get past systemic sloth. Kurien achieved a breakthrough only in 1969, when he leveraged the milk aid from FAO-WFP to fund the national grid for milk. His &lsquo;billion litre&rsquo; idea catalysed Operation Flood, creating incomes for millions of rural households. Thanks to that Milk Revolution, India is counted as the world&rsquo;s largest producer of milk with an output of 210 MT. It creates an economic value larger than of cereals and pulses. </p><div class="itemcenter"><amp-iframe height="62" title="" width="320" sandbox="allow-forms allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-top-navigation allow-top-navigation-by-user-activation" allowfullscreen src="https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.dev?url=https%3A%2F%2Fakm-img-a-in.tosshub.com%2Fsites%2Findiatoday%2Fbanner%2Fpreferred-source-new.html%3Fv%3D1.014%5Cu0026native%3D1" class="mrBt15 preferred-source-banner"> </amp-iframe></div></p><p><span><strong>Bank Nationalisation</strong></span></p><figure role="group" class="caption caption-drupal-entity">
<div data-embed-button="ckeditor_image" data-entity-embed-display="view_mode:media.image" data-entity-type="media" data-entity-uuid="c3f54a27-b70c-4408-a285-b390dd13672b" data-langcode="en" class="embedded-entity"><article class="media media--type-ckeditor-image media--view-mode-image">
  
      
            <div class="field field--name-field-media-image field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item">  <amp-img src="https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.dev?url=https%3A%2F%2Fakm-img-a-in.tosshub.com%2Findiatoday%2Fstyles%2Fmedium_crop_simple%2Fpublic%2F2022-12%2Feconomic-policy-b.jpg%3FVersionId%3DFQkkJtuH1kpC6XdkXKu_cbQJjr12FQIO%5Cu0026size%3D750:*" alt="" height="1097" width="770" class="image-style-medium-crop-simple" layout="responsive"></amp-img>


</div>
      
  </article>
</div>

<figcaption>(Photo: Rachit Goswami)</figcaption>
</figure></p><p>India knew in 1947 that it didn&rsquo;t have the resources to fund its ambiti&shy;ons. Its savings rate was barely 11 per cent. The political class was con&shy;vinced that business houses had colonised savings. It was Subha&shy;dra Joshi who first articulated the idea of nation&shy;alisation. Coming at the intersection of economics and politics, it gathered subscri&shy;ption as India needed investment capital and Indira Gandhi needed political capital to dethrone the syndicate in the Congress. In July 1969, the ownership of 14 banks was transfer&shy;red to the government, enabling it to access funds through the mechanism of SLR, addition of 50,000 branches and aggre&shy;gation of funds. In 2022, the policy may trigger revulsion, but there&rsquo;s no denying its role in enabling deve&shy;lopment. There&rsquo;s no disputing either that it took 40 years and a 12-digit revolution for the country to see financial inclusion.</p><p><span><strong>Mid-Day Meals</strong></span></p><figure role="group" class="caption caption-drupal-entity">
<div data-embed-button="ckeditor_image" data-entity-embed-display="view_mode:media.image" data-entity-type="media" data-entity-uuid="22fd694c-e0fe-4ce6-9428-ac949138d173" data-langcode="en" class="embedded-entity"><article class="media media--type-ckeditor-image media--view-mode-image">
  
      
            <div class="field field--name-field-media-image field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item">  <amp-img src="https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.dev?url=https%3A%2F%2Fakm-img-a-in.tosshub.com%2Findiatoday%2Fstyles%2Fmedium_crop_simple%2Fpublic%2F2022-12%2Feconomic-policy-c.jpg%3FVersionId%3Dhb4kV4hTyhfOJMjsYEmsxB967U6oF3vj%5Cu0026size%3D750:*" alt="" height="770" width="770" class="image-style-medium-crop-simple" layout="responsive"></amp-img>


</div>
      
  </article>
</div>

<figcaption>(Photo: India Picture)</figcaption>
</figure></p><p>At Independence, India had a literate population of a mere 18.3 per cent. Poverty thwarted enrolment and perpetuated illiteracy. Victor Hugo had first evangelised the correlation between feeding children and enrolment. K. Kamaraj introduced the idea in 1955; MGR expanded it in Tamil Nadu in 1982. Soon, it caught on across states, and chief ministers campaigned for a national programme at the National Development Council through the &rsquo;80s. In 1991, nearly a third of children didn&rsquo;t attend school, malnutrition was rising and India trailed even its neighbours, with literacy lagging at 52 per cent. Universalisation of the mid-day meal scheme (MDMS) came in phases, first in 1995 and after a Supreme Court intervention in 2001. Two decades later, several studies have validated the impact of MDMS, enrolment is in the 90s and girls outnumber boys in schools. Yet, a quarter of our population is still not literate.</p><p><span><strong>Economic Liberalisation</strong></span></p><figure role="group" class="caption caption-drupal-entity">
<div data-embed-button="ckeditor_image" data-entity-embed-display="view_mode:media.image" data-entity-type="media" data-entity-uuid="c75ba2b5-d557-40bc-92f6-6853e054bf03" data-langcode="en" class="embedded-entity"><article class="media media--type-ckeditor-image media--view-mode-image">
  
      
            <div class="field field--name-field-media-image field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item">  <amp-img src="https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.dev?url=https%3A%2F%2Fakm-img-a-in.tosshub.com%2Findiatoday%2Fstyles%2Fmedium_crop_simple%2Fpublic%2F2022-12%2Feconomic-policy-d.jpg%3FVersionId%3DLHrJpx0Hc.hUFCDDcpSSq.1x.Q6kIv.0%5Cu0026size%3D750:*" alt="" height="940" width="770" class="image-style-medium-crop-simple" layout="responsive"></amp-img>


</div>
      
  </article>
</div>

<figcaption>(Photo: Panjiar Prashant)</figcaption>
</figure></p><p>India won Independence in 1947, but it took the country another four decades to gain economic freedom. Inspired by the Soviet Union, India had chosen a model of state-led economic development—the government eff&shy;ectively determined the &lsquo;who, what, where and how much&rsquo; of production and pricing. C. Rajagopalachari had memorably characterised the architecture as &lsquo;licence-permit raj&rsquo;. Although evidence showed the model didn&rsquo;t deliver, successive regimes persisted with it. Change was compelled by the balance of payments crisis—India was left with barely a week&rsquo;s worth of foreign exchange. Chandra Shekhar approached the IMF. At 3 pm on January 18, 1991, the agency cleared emergency assistance, but the bailout came with conditionalities. India had to pledge gold from its reserves, seek aid from other nations and promise reforms. P.V. Narasimha Rao was sworn in on June 21. A day later, he addressed the nation and said: &ldquo;There are no soft options left.&rdquo; On July 24, Manmohan Singh presented the budget, and Rao, as industries minister, dismantled the licence raj. Liberalisation had arrived.</p><p><span><strong>Software Boom</strong></span></p><div data-embed-button="ckeditor_image" data-entity-embed-display="view_mode:media.image" data-entity-type="media" data-entity-uuid="92a2c5bb-0ba3-4217-b870-ca8208fbe1fc" data-langcode="en" class="embedded-entity"><article class="media media--type-ckeditor-image media--view-mode-image">
  
      
            <div class="field field--name-field-media-image field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item">  <amp-img src="https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.dev?url=https%3A%2F%2Fakm-img-a-in.tosshub.com%2Findiatoday%2Fstyles%2Fmedium_crop_simple%2Fpublic%2F2022-12%2Feconomic-policy-e.jpg%3FVersionId%3D61sS7NBmrImygYv7jtbM4uM2F5Z0cWiZ%5Cu0026size%3D750:*" alt="" height="770" width="770" class="image-style-medium-crop-simple" layout="responsive"></amp-img>


</div>
      
  </article>
</div></p><p>In August 1963, after the war with China, Jawaharlal Nehru set up a committee under Homi J. Bhabha to exa&shy;mine India&rsquo;s competitiveness in technology. The commit&shy;tee discovered that India had an edge in hardware and soft&shy;ware. Unfortunately, the cou&shy;ntry messed up the hardware opportunity and almost missed the software bus too. The software sector was denied the resources—computer connectivity and cash dollars—for three decades. In 1990, N. Vittal, secretary, Department of Electronics, floated the idea of software technology parks. He faced internal resistance and conditionality of $400 million in exports. Thanks to the 1991 crisis, the Rao regime eased policies to enable dollar earnings. The software sector, much like electronics did for Japan and Korea, helped brand India&rsquo;s technological prowess. Today, India&rsquo;s software firms employ over 5 million persons and set a new record with $254 billion in exports.</p><p><span><strong>Gram Sadak Yojana</strong></span></p><figure role="group" class="caption caption-drupal-entity">
<div data-embed-button="ckeditor_image" data-entity-embed-display="view_mode:media.image" data-entity-type="media" data-entity-uuid="d48f10c0-a638-4758-9ee0-b3eb85f7f24c" data-langcode="en" class="embedded-entity"><article class="media media--type-ckeditor-image media--view-mode-image">
  
      
            <div class="field field--name-field-media-image field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item">  <amp-img src="https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.dev?url=https%3A%2F%2Fakm-img-a-in.tosshub.com%2Findiatoday%2Fstyles%2Fmedium_crop_simple%2Fpublic%2F2022-12%2Feconomic-policy-f.jpg%3FVersionId%3DHfPZ5l8Y9M8kMtQd4Vhct_omcAolFxoW%5Cu0026size%3D750:*" alt="" height="485" width="770" class="image-style-medium-crop-simple" layout="responsive"></amp-img>


</div>
      
  </article>
</div>

<figcaption>(Photo: Chandradeep Kumar)</figcaption>
</figure></p><p>It started with a question: &ldquo;Is there a way to connect India with Bharat?&rdquo; A.B. Vajpayee asked it of Nitin Gadkari, who had come to felicitate the prime minister for winning the 1999 general election. The party, though, had lost in Maharashtra where Gadkari, as PWD minister, was known as phulkari or flyover maker. Vajpayee&rsquo;s concern: 300,000 villages and 300 million people lacking connectivity. Replying in the affirmative, Gadkari related the success of a fuel tax-funded road programme connecting Naxalite-affected districts in Maharashtra. Vajpayee asked Gadkari to head the National Rural Road Development Committee. Since its launch on December 25, 2000, over 7.12 lakh km of rural roads and 7,264 bridges have been completed. Its success has even moved the World Bank to commend its role in enabling transformation in governance.</p><p><span><strong>Aadhaar, the 12-Digit Revolution</strong></span></p><figure role="group" class="caption caption-drupal-entity">
<div data-embed-button="ckeditor_image" data-entity-embed-display="view_mode:media.image" data-entity-type="media" data-entity-uuid="df09cd9a-d296-4274-a3d0-534b0b0da7cf" data-langcode="en" class="embedded-entity"><article class="media media--type-ckeditor-image media--view-mode-image">
  
      
            <div class="field field--name-field-media-image field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item">  <amp-img src="https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.dev?url=https%3A%2F%2Fakm-img-a-in.tosshub.com%2Findiatoday%2Fstyles%2Fmedium_crop_simple%2Fpublic%2F2022-12%2Feconomic-policy-g.jpg%3FVersionId%3DA5JYUV64WyJGfYJkkTDOeShLC0gao181%5Cu0026size%3D750:*" alt="" height="835" width="770" class="image-style-medium-crop-simple" layout="responsive"></amp-img>


</div>
      
  </article>
</div>

<figcaption>(Photo: Reuters)</figcaption>
</figure></p><p>For six decades, governme&shy;nts created programmes. Poverty persisted and the schemes expanded. Rajiv Gandhi famously said out of every rupee meant for welfare, &ldquo;only 15 paise reached the people&rdquo;. The poor had no instrument to claim their rights. The idea of ide&shy;ntity cards yo-yoed from regime to regime. In 2009, the UPA government inducted Nandan Nilekani to set up the Unique Identifi&shy;cation Authority of India with an initial corpus of Rs 120 crore. Pranab Mukherjee provided political cover and Nilekani and then TRAI chairman R.S. Sharma powered the idea of biometric identity to create a platform for targeted delivery. The project faced public and political trial, and judicial scrutiny by the Sup&shy;reme Court. BJP leaders called it a threat to the nation. Narendra Modi the candidate raised questions in the run-up to the 2014 polls. Prime Minis&shy;ter Modi, persuaded of its efficacy by Nilekani, adapted and adopted it. Legislative legitimacy followed, and the PM propelled its expansion. In 2022, over 1.3 billion people are enro&shy;lled. Aadhaar has enabled financial inclusion, easier access to welfare and private services and is lauded globally.</p><p><span><strong>Goods and Services Tax</strong></span></p><div data-embed-button="ckeditor_image" data-entity-embed-display="view_mode:media.image" data-entity-type="media" data-entity-uuid="633e47df-e94f-4c8b-b8fa-f1dc1d998f42" data-langcode="en" class="embedded-entity"><article class="media media--type-ckeditor-image media--view-mode-image">
  
      
            <div class="field field--name-field-media-image field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item">  <amp-img src="https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.dev?url=https%3A%2F%2Fakm-img-a-in.tosshub.com%2Findiatoday%2Fstyles%2Fmedium_crop_simple%2Fpublic%2F2022-12%2Feconomic-policy-h_0.jpg%3FVersionId%3DWe1cyaxaaZLYwzR4AyfJOUxckv_U9UzW%5Cu0026size%3D750:*" alt="" height="406" width="770" class="image-style-medium-crop-simple" layout="responsive"></amp-img>


</div>
      
  </article>
</div></p><p>For years, India endured a regime of multi-laye&shy;red taxation that impac&shy;ted cost of living and business competitiveness—the current fuel taxation system symbolises the ills. The concept of a unified tax system—encompassing central, state and local levies—was visualised during the A.B. Vajpayee regime. Vijay Kelkar articulated it best in his 2004 report of the Task Force on Implementation of the FRBM Act as a &lsquo;grand bargain&rsquo; to foster a &lsquo;national common market&rsquo;. Announcements followed—by P. Chidam&shy;baram in 2006 and Pranab Mukherjee in 2011—but debates over calibration of rates and loss compensation to states haunted formulation. Eventually, Prime Minister Narendra Modi deployed political capital to negotiate a deal and operationalise a &lsquo;one nation, one tax&rsquo; regime in 2017. In five years, the GST platform, initially marred by glitches, has evolved to deli&shy;ver an average Rs 1.4 lakh crore a month. Critically, it has brought sanity to the tax system. Opening up GST data can inform and improve design of policy.</p><p><span><strong>E-Payments</strong></span></p><figure role="group" class="caption caption-drupal-entity">
<div data-embed-button="ckeditor_image" data-entity-embed-display="view_mode:media.image" data-entity-type="media" data-entity-uuid="86861c14-c120-4460-9a14-a6715b31eaab" data-langcode="en" class="embedded-entity"><article class="media media--type-ckeditor-image media--view-mode-image">
  
      
            <div class="field field--name-field-media-image field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item">  <amp-img src="https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.dev?url=https%3A%2F%2Fakm-img-a-in.tosshub.com%2Findiatoday%2Fstyles%2Fmedium_crop_simple%2Fpublic%2F2022-12%2Feconomic-policy-i.jpg%3FVersionId%3DE8U.5M0QWQaUq6ZbbWKKm6q25h6q9NBJ%5Cu0026size%3D750:*" alt="" height="569" width="770" class="image-style-medium-crop-simple" layout="responsive"></amp-img>


</div>
      
  </article>
</div>

<figcaption>(Photo: Reuters)</figcaption>
</figure></p><p>Few could have imagined its impact when the National Payments Corporation of India was set up in 2008. A &lsquo;not for profit&rsquo; government initiative funded by banks, it has designed and furnished a parade of platforms—among them, a nationwide connected ATM network, IMPS for real-time transfers, RuPay cards and the Unified Payments Interface (UPI)—in under a decade. The ubiquitous scan and pay culture, with over 7 billion transactions in a month just on UPI, symbolises the expansion and adoption of digital payments. As Prime Minister Narendra Modi observed recently, digitalisation has enabled &lsquo;democratisation of technology&rsquo; in the war against poverty. India today boasts a digital payments ecosystem that is the envy of the world.</p><div id="tab-link-wrapper-plugin"><div class="authors__container"><div class="authors__by"><div class="authlable">Published By: </div><div class="authdetaisl">Arindam Mukherjee</div></div><div class="published__on"><div class="authlable">Published On: </div><div class="authdetaisl">Dec 26, 2022</div></div></div><div class="sendros">--- ENDS ---</div><div id="tab-video-wrapper-plugin"><amp-iframe height="365" title="" width="648" layout="responsive" sandbox="allow-forms allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-top-navigation allow-top-navigation-by-user-activation" allowfullscreen src="https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.dev?url=https%3A%2F%2Fembed.indiatoday.in%2Fshare%2Fvideo%2Fprogramme%2Ffirst-up%2FMTcxMzA3OQ%3D%3D%3Fnative%3Dend" class="mrBt15"> </amp-iframe></div></div>

cover-story

Cover Story

<p><img  title=""  class="wrap-body-img" alt="" src="https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.dev?url=https%3A%2F%2Fakm-img-a-in.tosshub.com%2Findiatoday%2Fdashboard%2Falpha%2Feconomic-policy-author.jpg%3FVersionId%3DlpiFBSMQXhNP9Xi81UojMuLZd0XORUV7" loading="lazy" /><span style="color:#c0392b;"><strong>Food Security</strong></span></p><p>In 1952, Jawaharlal Nehru had said &ldquo;every&shy;thing else can wait, not agriculture&rdquo;. Policy shortcomings and a rising population worsened scarcity, leaving India dependent on Harry Truman&rsquo;s India Emergency Food Act and PL480 assistance. In 1963, Nehru told Parliament: &ldquo;We cannot live on doles from other count&shy;ries.&rdquo; As it turned out, in 1966, as India was caught in two successive years of famine, the Lyndon B. Johnson government corralled supplies and tagged India a &lsquo;ship to mouth&rsquo; economy. Lal Bahadur Shastri and Indira Gandhi empowered C. Subramaniam and M.S. Swaminathan to induct hybrid seeds to ramp up yield and engi&shy;neer the Green Revolution. With a harvest of 316 MT in 2022, India is among the world&rsquo;s top three food producers.</p><p><span style="color:#c0392b;"><strong>The Amul Model</strong></span></p><p>In 1951, India produced 17 million tonnes of milk a year with per capita availability of 5 ounces daily. Scarcity—in milk, its products, baby food—remained real for decades and visible in the quantum of imports. Verghese Kurien, the milkman of India, had established the viability of milk coopera&shy;tives as early as in 1952. Even though every prime minister from Nehru to Indira Gandhi recognised the Kurien model, the idea could not get past systemic sloth. Kurien achieved a breakthrough only in 1969, when he leveraged the milk aid from FAO-WFP to fund the national grid for milk. His &lsquo;billion litre&rsquo; idea catalysed Operation Flood, creating incomes for millions of rural households. Thanks to that Milk Revolution, India is counted as the world&rsquo;s largest producer of milk with an output of 210 MT. It creates an economic value larger than of cereals and pulses. </p><div class="itemcenter"><iframe scrolling="no" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" width="100%" height="62" awidth="320" aheight="62" amplayout="fixed" src="https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.dev?url=https%3A%2F%2Fakm-img-a-in.tosshub.com%2Fsites%2Findiatoday%2Fbanner%2Fpreferred-source-new.html%3Fv%3D1.014" class="preferred-source-banner" loading="lazy"></iframe></div><style>.preferred-source-banner{  margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom:10px;}</style></p><p><span style="color:#c0392b;"><strong>Bank Nationalisation</strong></span></p><figure role="group" class="caption caption-drupal-entity">
<div data-embed-button="ckeditor_image" data-entity-embed-display="view_mode:media.image" data-entity-type="media" data-entity-uuid="c3f54a27-b70c-4408-a285-b390dd13672b" data-langcode="en" class="embedded-entity"><article class="media media--type-ckeditor-image media--view-mode-image">
  
      
            <div class="field field--name-field-media-image field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item">  <div class="itgimage"><img  height="1097"  title=""  width="770"  class="image-style-medium-crop-simple" alt="(Photo: Rachit Goswami)" src="https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.dev?url=https%3A%2F%2Fakm-img-a-in.tosshub.com%2Findiatoday%2Fstyles%2Fmedium_crop_simple%2Fpublic%2F2022-12%2Feconomic-policy-b.jpg%3FVersionId%3DFQkkJtuH1kpC6XdkXKu_cbQJjr12FQIO%5Cu0026size%3D750:*" loading="lazy" /></div>


</div>
      
  </article>
</div>

<figcaption>(Photo: Rachit Goswami)</figcaption>
</figure></p><p>India knew in 1947 that it didn&rsquo;t have the resources to fund its ambiti&shy;ons. Its savings rate was barely 11 per cent. The political class was con&shy;vinced that business houses had colonised savings. It was Subha&shy;dra Joshi who first articulated the idea of nation&shy;alisation. Coming at the intersection of economics and politics, it gathered subscri&shy;ption as India needed investment capital and Indira Gandhi needed political capital to dethrone the syndicate in the Congress. In July 1969, the ownership of 14 banks was transfer&shy;red to the government, enabling it to access funds through the mechanism of SLR, addition of 50,000 branches and aggre&shy;gation of funds. In 2022, the policy may trigger revulsion, but there&rsquo;s no denying its role in enabling deve&shy;lopment. There&rsquo;s no disputing either that it took 40 years and a 12-digit revolution for the country to see financial inclusion.</p><p><span style="color:#c0392b;"><strong>Mid-Day Meals</strong></span></p><figure role="group" class="caption caption-drupal-entity">
<div data-embed-button="ckeditor_image" data-entity-embed-display="view_mode:media.image" data-entity-type="media" data-entity-uuid="22fd694c-e0fe-4ce6-9428-ac949138d173" data-langcode="en" class="embedded-entity"><article class="media media--type-ckeditor-image media--view-mode-image">
  
      
            <div class="field field--name-field-media-image field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item">  <div class="itgimage"><img  height="770"  title=""  width="770"  class="image-style-medium-crop-simple" alt="(Photo: India Picture)" src="https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.dev?url=https%3A%2F%2Fakm-img-a-in.tosshub.com%2Findiatoday%2Fstyles%2Fmedium_crop_simple%2Fpublic%2F2022-12%2Feconomic-policy-c.jpg%3FVersionId%3Dhb4kV4hTyhfOJMjsYEmsxB967U6oF3vj%5Cu0026size%3D750:*" loading="lazy" /></div>


</div>
      
  </article>
</div>

<figcaption>(Photo: India Picture)</figcaption>
</figure></p><p>At Independence, India had a literate population of a mere 18.3 per cent. Poverty thwarted enrolment and perpetuated illiteracy. Victor Hugo had first evangelised the correlation between feeding children and enrolment. K. Kamaraj introduced the idea in 1955; MGR expanded it in Tamil Nadu in 1982. Soon, it caught on across states, and chief ministers campaigned for a national programme at the National Development Council through the &rsquo;80s. In 1991, nearly a third of children didn&rsquo;t attend school, malnutrition was rising and India trailed even its neighbours, with literacy lagging at 52 per cent. Universalisation of the mid-day meal scheme (MDMS) came in phases, first in 1995 and after a Supreme Court intervention in 2001. Two decades later, several studies have validated the impact of MDMS, enrolment is in the 90s and girls outnumber boys in schools. Yet, a quarter of our population is still not literate.</p><p><span style="color:#c0392b;"><strong>Economic Liberalisation</strong></span></p><figure role="group" class="caption caption-drupal-entity">
<div data-embed-button="ckeditor_image" data-entity-embed-display="view_mode:media.image" data-entity-type="media" data-entity-uuid="c75ba2b5-d557-40bc-92f6-6853e054bf03" data-langcode="en" class="embedded-entity"><article class="media media--type-ckeditor-image media--view-mode-image">
  
      
            <div class="field field--name-field-media-image field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item">  <div class="itgimage"><img  height="940"  title=""  width="770"  class="image-style-medium-crop-simple" alt="(Photo: Panjiar Prashant)" src="https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.dev?url=https%3A%2F%2Fakm-img-a-in.tosshub.com%2Findiatoday%2Fstyles%2Fmedium_crop_simple%2Fpublic%2F2022-12%2Feconomic-policy-d.jpg%3FVersionId%3DLHrJpx0Hc.hUFCDDcpSSq.1x.Q6kIv.0%5Cu0026size%3D750:*" loading="lazy" /></div>


</div>
      
  </article>
</div>

<figcaption>(Photo: Panjiar Prashant)</figcaption>
</figure></p><p>India won Independence in 1947, but it took the country another four decades to gain economic freedom. Inspired by the Soviet Union, India had chosen a model of state-led economic development—the government eff&shy;ectively determined the &lsquo;who, what, where and how much&rsquo; of production and pricing. C. Rajagopalachari had memorably characterised the architecture as &lsquo;licence-permit raj&rsquo;. Although evidence showed the model didn&rsquo;t deliver, successive regimes persisted with it. Change was compelled by the balance of payments crisis—India was left with barely a week&rsquo;s worth of foreign exchange. Chandra Shekhar approached the IMF. At 3 pm on January 18, 1991, the agency cleared emergency assistance, but the bailout came with conditionalities. India had to pledge gold from its reserves, seek aid from other nations and promise reforms. P.V. Narasimha Rao was sworn in on June 21. A day later, he addressed the nation and said: &ldquo;There are no soft options left.&rdquo; On July 24, Manmohan Singh presented the budget, and Rao, as industries minister, dismantled the licence raj. Liberalisation had arrived.</p><p><span style="color:#c0392b;"><strong>Software Boom</strong></span></p><div data-embed-button="ckeditor_image" data-entity-embed-display="view_mode:media.image" data-entity-type="media" data-entity-uuid="92a2c5bb-0ba3-4217-b870-ca8208fbe1fc" data-langcode="en" class="embedded-entity"><article class="media media--type-ckeditor-image media--view-mode-image">
  
      
            <div class="field field--name-field-media-image field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item">  <div class="itgimage"><img  height="770"  title=""  width="770"  class="image-style-medium-crop-simple" alt="" src="https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.dev?url=https%3A%2F%2Fakm-img-a-in.tosshub.com%2Findiatoday%2Fstyles%2Fmedium_crop_simple%2Fpublic%2F2022-12%2Feconomic-policy-e.jpg%3FVersionId%3D61sS7NBmrImygYv7jtbM4uM2F5Z0cWiZ%5Cu0026size%3D750:*" loading="lazy" /></div>


</div>
      
  </article>
</div></p><p>In August 1963, after the war with China, Jawaharlal Nehru set up a committee under Homi J. Bhabha to exa&shy;mine India&rsquo;s competitiveness in technology. The commit&shy;tee discovered that India had an edge in hardware and soft&shy;ware. Unfortunately, the cou&shy;ntry messed up the hardware opportunity and almost missed the software bus too. The software sector was denied the resources—computer connectivity and cash dollars—for three decades. In 1990, N. Vittal, secretary, Department of Electronics, floated the idea of software technology parks. He faced internal resistance and conditionality of $400 million in exports. Thanks to the 1991 crisis, the Rao regime eased policies to enable dollar earnings. The software sector, much like electronics did for Japan and Korea, helped brand India&rsquo;s technological prowess. Today, India&rsquo;s software firms employ over 5 million persons and set a new record with $254 billion in exports.</p><p><span style="color:#c0392b;"><strong>Gram Sadak Yojana</strong></span></p><figure role="group" class="caption caption-drupal-entity">
<div data-embed-button="ckeditor_image" data-entity-embed-display="view_mode:media.image" data-entity-type="media" data-entity-uuid="d48f10c0-a638-4758-9ee0-b3eb85f7f24c" data-langcode="en" class="embedded-entity"><article class="media media--type-ckeditor-image media--view-mode-image">
  
      
            <div class="field field--name-field-media-image field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item">  <div class="itgimage"><img  height="485"  title=""  width="770"  class="image-style-medium-crop-simple" alt="(Photo: Chandradeep Kumar)" src="https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.dev?url=https%3A%2F%2Fakm-img-a-in.tosshub.com%2Findiatoday%2Fstyles%2Fmedium_crop_simple%2Fpublic%2F2022-12%2Feconomic-policy-f.jpg%3FVersionId%3DHfPZ5l8Y9M8kMtQd4Vhct_omcAolFxoW%5Cu0026size%3D750:*" loading="lazy" /></div>


</div>
      
  </article>
</div>

<figcaption>(Photo: Chandradeep Kumar)</figcaption>
</figure></p><p>It started with a question: &ldquo;Is there a way to connect India with Bharat?&rdquo; A.B. Vajpayee asked it of Nitin Gadkari, who had come to felicitate the prime minister for winning the 1999 general election. The party, though, had lost in Maharashtra where Gadkari, as PWD minister, was known as phulkari or flyover maker. Vajpayee&rsquo;s concern: 300,000 villages and 300 million people lacking connectivity. Replying in the affirmative, Gadkari related the success of a fuel tax-funded road programme connecting Naxalite-affected districts in Maharashtra. Vajpayee asked Gadkari to head the National Rural Road Development Committee. Since its launch on December 25, 2000, over 7.12 lakh km of rural roads and 7,264 bridges have been completed. Its success has even moved the World Bank to commend its role in enabling transformation in governance.</p><p><span style="color:#c0392b;"><strong>Aadhaar, the 12-Digit Revolution</strong></span></p><figure role="group" class="caption caption-drupal-entity">
<div data-embed-button="ckeditor_image" data-entity-embed-display="view_mode:media.image" data-entity-type="media" data-entity-uuid="df09cd9a-d296-4274-a3d0-534b0b0da7cf" data-langcode="en" class="embedded-entity"><article class="media media--type-ckeditor-image media--view-mode-image">
  
      
            <div class="field field--name-field-media-image field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item">  <div class="itgimage"><img  height="835"  title=""  width="770"  class="image-style-medium-crop-simple" alt="(Photo: Reuters)" src="https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.dev?url=https%3A%2F%2Fakm-img-a-in.tosshub.com%2Findiatoday%2Fstyles%2Fmedium_crop_simple%2Fpublic%2F2022-12%2Feconomic-policy-g.jpg%3FVersionId%3DA5JYUV64WyJGfYJkkTDOeShLC0gao181%5Cu0026size%3D750:*" loading="lazy" /></div>


</div>
      
  </article>
</div>

<figcaption>(Photo: Reuters)</figcaption>
</figure></p><p>For six decades, governme&shy;nts created programmes. Poverty persisted and the schemes expanded. Rajiv Gandhi famously said out of every rupee meant for welfare, &ldquo;only 15 paise reached the people&rdquo;. The poor had no instrument to claim their rights. The idea of ide&shy;ntity cards yo-yoed from regime to regime. In 2009, the UPA government inducted Nandan Nilekani to set up the Unique Identifi&shy;cation Authority of India with an initial corpus of Rs 120 crore. Pranab Mukherjee provided political cover and Nilekani and then TRAI chairman R.S. Sharma powered the idea of biometric identity to create a platform for targeted delivery. The project faced public and political trial, and judicial scrutiny by the Sup&shy;reme Court. BJP leaders called it a threat to the nation. Narendra Modi the candidate raised questions in the run-up to the 2014 polls. Prime Minis&shy;ter Modi, persuaded of its efficacy by Nilekani, adapted and adopted it. Legislative legitimacy followed, and the PM propelled its expansion. In 2022, over 1.3 billion people are enro&shy;lled. Aadhaar has enabled financial inclusion, easier access to welfare and private services and is lauded globally.</p><p><span style="color:#c0392b;"><strong>Goods and Services Tax</strong></span></p><div data-embed-button="ckeditor_image" data-entity-embed-display="view_mode:media.image" data-entity-type="media" data-entity-uuid="633e47df-e94f-4c8b-b8fa-f1dc1d998f42" data-langcode="en" class="embedded-entity"><article class="media media--type-ckeditor-image media--view-mode-image">
  
      
            <div class="field field--name-field-media-image field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item">  <div class="itgimage"><img  height="406"  title=""  width="770"  class="image-style-medium-crop-simple" alt="" src="https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.dev?url=https%3A%2F%2Fakm-img-a-in.tosshub.com%2Findiatoday%2Fstyles%2Fmedium_crop_simple%2Fpublic%2F2022-12%2Feconomic-policy-h_0.jpg%3FVersionId%3DWe1cyaxaaZLYwzR4AyfJOUxckv_U9UzW%5Cu0026size%3D750:*" loading="lazy" /></div>


</div>
      
  </article>
</div></p><p>For years, India endured a regime of multi-laye&shy;red taxation that impac&shy;ted cost of living and business competitiveness—the current fuel taxation system symbolises the ills. The concept of a unified tax system—encompassing central, state and local levies—was visualised during the A.B. Vajpayee regime. Vijay Kelkar articulated it best in his 2004 report of the Task Force on Implementation of the FRBM Act as a &lsquo;grand bargain&rsquo; to foster a &lsquo;national common market&rsquo;. Announcements followed—by P. Chidam&shy;baram in 2006 and Pranab Mukherjee in 2011—but debates over calibration of rates and loss compensation to states haunted formulation. Eventually, Prime Minister Narendra Modi deployed political capital to negotiate a deal and operationalise a &lsquo;one nation, one tax&rsquo; regime in 2017. In five years, the GST platform, initially marred by glitches, has evolved to deli&shy;ver an average Rs 1.4 lakh crore a month. Critically, it has brought sanity to the tax system. Opening up GST data can inform and improve design of policy.</p><p><span style="color:#c0392b;"><strong>E-Payments</strong></span></p><figure role="group" class="caption caption-drupal-entity">
<div data-embed-button="ckeditor_image" data-entity-embed-display="view_mode:media.image" data-entity-type="media" data-entity-uuid="86861c14-c120-4460-9a14-a6715b31eaab" data-langcode="en" class="embedded-entity"><article class="media media--type-ckeditor-image media--view-mode-image">
  
      
            <div class="field field--name-field-media-image field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item">  <div class="itgimage"><img  height="569"  title=""  width="770"  class="image-style-medium-crop-simple" alt="(Photo: Yasir Iqbal)" src="https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.dev?url=https%3A%2F%2Fakm-img-a-in.tosshub.com%2Findiatoday%2Fstyles%2Fmedium_crop_simple%2Fpublic%2F2022-12%2Feconomic-policy-i.jpg%3FVersionId%3DE8U.5M0QWQaUq6ZbbWKKm6q25h6q9NBJ%5Cu0026size%3D750:*" loading="lazy" /></div>


</div>
      
  </article>
</div>

<figcaption>(Photo: Reuters)</figcaption>
</figure></p><p>Few could have imagined its impact when the National Payments Corporation of India was set up in 2008. A &lsquo;not for profit&rsquo; government initiative funded by banks, it has designed and furnished a parade of platforms—among them, a nationwide connected ATM network, IMPS for real-time transfers, RuPay cards and the Unified Payments Interface (UPI)—in under a decade. The ubiquitous scan and pay culture, with over 7 billion transactions in a month just on UPI, symbolises the expansion and adoption of digital payments. As Prime Minister Narendra Modi observed recently, digitalisation has enabled &lsquo;democratisation of technology&rsquo; in the war against poverty. India today boasts a digital payments ecosystem that is the envy of the world.</p><div id="tab-link-wrapper-plugin"><div class="authors__container"><div class="authors__by"><div class="authlable">Published By: </div><div class="authdetaisl">Arindam Mukherjee</div></div><div class="published__on"><div class="authlable">Published On: </div><div class="authdetaisl">Dec 26, 2022</div></div></div><div class="sendros">--- ENDS ---</div><div id="tab-video-wrapper-plugin"><iframe  height="365"  title=""  width="648"  layout="responsive" sandbox="allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-top-navigation allow-top-navigation-by-user-activation" allowfullscreen scrolling="no" src="https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.dev?url=https%3A%2F%2Fembed.indiatoday.in%2Fshare%2Fvideo%2Fprogramme%2Ffirst-up%2FMTcxMzA3OQ%3D%3D%3Fnative%3D1" loading="lazy" class="multy-video-iframe" > </iframe></div></div>

India's journey from penury to prosperity has been a roller-coaster ride. These momentous decisions steered it past troughs and upheavals and helped to create a modern, global powerhouse

The Amul model: Thanks to the Milk Revolution, India is counted as the world’s largest producer of milk; (Photo: India Picture)

India Today

Economic policies | Unchaining India - India Today

Best of economic policies that steered India

Jeep India has launched the 2026 Meridian at Rs 23.33 lakh (ex-showroom), adding sliding second-row seats on higher variants to improve third-row comfort and overall flexibility in its premium seven-seat SUV.

2026 Jeep Meridian

2026 Jeep Meridian launched at Rs 23.33 lakh, gets sliding second-row seats

Canadian PM Mark Carney's Davos speech shreds the myth of a fair Western order, calling out the US as a disruptor. His advice to middle powers amidst Trump's tariffs and threats: adapt or perish.

Canada PM Mark Carney

The Davos Rupture: Carney Exposes Western Hypocrisy, Signals the Dawn of Post-American Realism

Solar radiation storms erupt when the sun unleashes a magnetic fury, typically via a coronal mass ejection (CME). 

Earth magnetic field

Earth hit by strongest solar storm in 20 years: Here's what happened

The couple, already parents to two sons, announced the arrival of daughter Mikey Moon Trainor following a surrogacy journey described as the safest option for their family.

Meghan Trainor

Precious girl: Meghan Trainor and Daryl Sabara welcome third child via surrogate

India vs New Zealand: Criticism of Gautam Gambhir has intensified after India’s ODI series loss at home to a second-string New Zealand side. While Gambhir must be questioned over India’s inconsistent results, the head coach needs breathing space as the team turns its focus to a five-match T20I series against New Zealand ahead of next month’s T20 World Cup title defence.

Gautam Gambhir

T20 World Cup defence first, verdict on Gautam Gambhir can wait

Play Time!

Donald Trump

Sensex

Sunita Williams

Aravalli

Davos 2026

JEE Main

Border 2

PM Modi

Stray Dogs

Maneka Gandhi

Jana Nayagan

Dhurandhar

Jaipur Literature Festival

WPL 2026

AR Rahman

Budget

T20 World Cup

Four days after the accident, authorities pulled out the car of the tech professional Yuvraj Mehta, whose car plunged into a water-filled pit in Greater Noida on Friday night. 

Video: Noida techie's car pulled out of the water-filled pit

From Chamoli, where locals are praying for snowfall, to Auli, where residents are demanding artificial snow, the crisis is unfolding in real time. 

Himalaya

No snow, no rain: What’s happening in the Himalayas?

In an exclusive interview with India Today, renowned foreign policy analyst Fareed Zakaria said that Donald Trump's doctrine seems to be to fight with your allies and make up with your enemies.

Fareed

Trump doctrine seems to be fight with allies, make up with enemies: Fareed Zakaria

In a significant generational shift, Nitin Nabin has formally taken charge as the National President of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). 

Nitin Naveen: The New BJP National President

Nitin Nabin Takes Charge As BJP National President; PM Modi Calls Him 'My Boss'

In a significant India Today impact, the UP Police have arrested builder Abhay Kumar in connection with the death of a 27-year-old software engineer.

Download App

Subscribe to India Today Print + Digital. Your First Month Is On Us. ₹299/month thereafter. Cancel anytime.

Best of economic policies that steered India

India's journey from penury to prosperity has been a roller-coaster ride. These momentous decisions steered it past troughs and upheavals and helped to create a modern, global powerhouse

PUBLICATIONS

TELEVISION

EVENTS

RADIO

GAMING

USEFUL LINKS

PRINTING

WELFARE

DISTRIBUTION

SYNDICATIONS

WEBSITES

EDUCATION