Ahluwalia Charts Path to Make India a Global Leader by 2047

In a stirring tribute to the late Dr. Manmohan Singh, former Deputy Chairman of India’s Planning Commission, Dr. Montek Singh Ahluwalia, delivered the inaugural Dr. Manmohan Singh Memorial Lecture at O.P. Jindal Global University (JGU), themed “The Policy Agenda We Need for Viksit Bharat.” The Padma Vibhushan awardee, a key architect of India’s economic reforms since the 1980s, provided a sweeping analysis of India’s economic journey since 1991, its current status as the fastest-growing emerging market, and the bold, politically challenging reforms required to achieve Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of a developed India by 2047. Held on September 29, 2025, the lecture drew scholars, policymakers, and students, celebrating Singh’s legacy as the mastermind behind India’s liberalization and a decade-long premiership that shaped global partnerships.

Ahluwalia reflected on the transformative 1991 reforms, which dismantled the restrictive “License Raj” that favored large conglomerates while stifling smaller enterprises due to controlled exchange rates and import licenses. “What 1991 did was to eliminate all of this,” he said, acknowledging the deliberate gradualism driven by political caution. While this approach allowed adjustment time, it also fueled lobbying that slowed progress, leading to growth that, while significant, paled against China’s meteoric rise from a comparable 1990 global GDP share to 16.8% today, compared to India’s lagging 7.5%. Ahluwalia admitted inefficiencies in execution, noting, “It could have been done more efficiently than we did,” highlighting how China’s decisive reforms outpaced India’s cautious liberalization, leaving the latter trailing in global economic influence.

Addressing India’s present, Ahluwalia celebrated its 6.5% average growth rate over the past 11 years, positioning it ahead of other emerging markets despite global challenges like trade wars and climate crises. Yet, he cautioned that comparisons with China reveal stark gaps in manufacturing, export competitiveness, and infrastructure. “The more we look at India compared to China, India is nowhere!” he stated, pointing to the EU’s declining global GDP share (from 28% in the 1990s to 17.4%) and the U.S.’s steady 26.2%. India’s digital transformation, exemplified by UPI’s 50% share of global financial transactions by volume, and schemes like the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) have bolstered growth, but sustaining an 8% annual growth rate to 2047 demands tackling middle-income complexities, including urbanization and skill development for a 1.4 billion population.

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Looking to the future, Ahluwalia endorsed Modi’s “Reform, Perform, Transform” framework, urging politically tough reforms to attract foreign direct investment and establish India as a global manufacturing hub. He emphasized legal reforms for contract enforcement, robust intellectual property protections, and streamlined dispute resolution to assure investors under the “Make in India” banner. “It’s about creating an institutional framework that can handle this incredible complexity,” he said, projecting that an 8% growth rate could sextuple per capita income by 2047. Drawing from his collaboration with Singh, Ahluwalia stressed blending scholarship with pragmatism, citing Singh’s landmark policies like the 2008 U.S.-India nuclear deal and MGNREGA, which guaranteed rural employment and bolstered social equity.

The event, hosted by JGU’s Jindal School of Government and Public Policy, was introduced by Dean Prof. R. Sudarshan, who hailed Singh and Ahluwalia as a “great combination of first-rate scholarship and practical policy-making.” Vice Chancellor Prof. (Dr.) C. Raj Kumar emphasized the lecture’s role in honoring transformative leaders, praising Ahluwalia’s intellectual integrity and collaborative spirit. Prof. (Dr.) Mrinalini Jha reflected on Singh’s legacy, from averting economic collapse in 1991 to forging strategic global ties. As JGU, a top-100 QS World University Rankings institution, fosters such dialogues, Ahluwalia’s vision underscores the urgency of bold reforms to propel India toward Viksit Bharat, ensuring Singh’s legacy inspires the next generation of policymakers.

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