The productivity, energy and creativity of a billion Indians should have been the engine that powers the world. The way to creating prosperity in India lies in ending its PPP (perpetually planned poverty) policies. Which means shrinking government and returning the wealth that is truly ours.
Can Indians become 10 times richer in the next 10 years? It has taken us 40 years to increase our per capita annual income 10 times to our present level of about Rs 1.1 lakh per person. In the same period, Chinese incomes have increased 50 times. For a few moments, close your eyes and imagine if you were 10 times richer. Because you should have been. But you are not, through no fault of yours.
The productivity, energy and creativity of a billion Indians should have been the engine that powers the world. But we are all being swallowed up in the world’s biggest anti-prosperity, pro-poverty machine: bad education, few good jobs, taxes that eat away income and profits, and regulations that chain us. The government has made us into beggars we were never born to be – for rations, for waivers, for quotas, for justice, for seats, for jobs, for clean air.
130 crore Indians go through their daily lives farming, making stuff, learning, buying, selling. Much of it at very low levels of productivity. We live life with some hope and a lot of fear. And we wait. For tomorrow to be better than today. Which after demonetisation and GST has become – “please let tomorrow not be worse than today.”
The way to creating prosperity in India lies in ending its PPP (perpetually planned poverty) policies. Which means shrinking government and returning the wealth that is truly ours. Since no government in India can be expected to clip its own wings, we need to do it ourselves. In other words, total political change.
Which brings us to the second question. Who/what can deliver this political change?
Only a startup can, a startup without the legacy of India’s politics. A startup that can think out-of-the-box. A startup built on the premise of returning wealth and power to the rightful owners – the Indian people. That startup is Nayi Disha.
Like any entrepreneurial venture, the odds of success are infinitesimally small. As a founder, I am optimistic it can be done. Through the coming weeks, I will outline my journey, and propose how we can together climb mountains beyond mountains.
Read more: Smashing the Anti-Prosperity Machine