Can India ever become a superpower?

Can India ever become a superpower country?

You may have been our Prime Minister Narendra Modi constantly gunning for his statement of ‘making India a 5-trillion-dollar economy’ in the near future, but do you know what that means? That means that according to him we are pegged to be a superpower nation in the foreseeable future…

But, leaving high-handed political statements and national pride aside, is India really going to be a superpower someday? We really hope so! However, there are some counter statements around the world that don’t seem to agree…

Can India become a superpower? These people don’t agree…

London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) tabled a famous report called India: the next superpower? authored by nine experts who studied the country’s progress on five important aspects: government, environment, defense, culture and society.

They all came to the conclusion that though India has oodles of wealth, yet it is still under the shackles of extreme poverty, corruption, shoddy religious extremism and extreme social divisions. Apart from the niggling threat of security invasions– internal (Maoists and Jihadis) as well as external (mainly Pakistan-backed terrorism) are always looming above our heads.

Two main authors of this report, namely Ramachandra Guha and D. Rajeev Sibal chime on the fact that even though India is making tremendous strides in trade and policy, it is under the threat of overpopulation and over-consumption of resources.

They say that until India cannot repair all of its social institutions which are marred by corruption, our management of productivity and economic dominance can never achieve optimal fruition.

So, what really makes a superpower country?

• A state that exerts exemplary military or economic might over various continents.
• A state without whose cooperation/intervention the world order cannot be reinstated, mainly hegemony.
• A state that conceives its own economic policies which directly affects the world. The world generally follows suit in order to meet its sanctions and tariff cuts.
• A state that has mastered the seven dimensions of state power, namely geography, population, economy, resources, military, diplomacy and national identity. – Wikipedia

Overall, India doesn’t really fare well in most of the aforementioned aspects. We are still a work-in-progress country which is ironing out the chinks in its armor with time. We still are battling malnutrition, a population boom, low mortality rate and above all, slow progress in international relations (trade and diplomatic).

What do we think? Can India become a superpower?

Frankly speaking, this is a ‘maybe’ type of answer…

The current Modi government does have it in itself to transform India into a force to reckon with. They have already passed many important legislations to do away with archaic laws and also aim to improve India’s overall quality of living index.

However, India is still under the clenches of the caste system, religious polarization and above all widespread corruption at all levels of society.

The Modi government won’t be there to serve India forever, which is why future governmental policies will decide if they wish to iron out corruption and seriously think about transforming India into a superpower nation. Until then, India simply cannot become a superpower…