Vision @2047 nearly ready, PM Modi to launch in January: NITI Aayog CEO

PM to launch 'Voice of Youth' campaign on Monday to seek ideas from students

NITI Aayog is in the final stages of harmonising reports from secretaries of sectoral groups to prepare a blueprint for ‘Viksit Bharat @2047’ – the ambitious vision document aiming to make India a developed economy of $30 trillion by 2047, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of India’s central think tank said on Sunday.

On Monday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will launch the ‘Viksit Bharat @2047: Voice of Youth’ campaign during which he will virtually address the vice-chancellors of universities, heads of institutes and faculty members in workshops organised at Raj Bhawans across the country, NITI Aayog CEO BVR Subrahmanyam told reporters in New Delhi.

The youth engagement campaign, the last stage in preparing the vision document, will seek views from students through a web portal, which will continue to be open for a few weeks, Subrahmanyam said.

Around the end of January, Modi will launch the document, which estimates a per capita gross domestic product (GDP) of $17,590, Rs 1,273 trillion of investments, and a literacy rate of 90 per cent by 2047.

Notably, the macroeconomic modelling done by the Centre for the vision pegs India’s trade deficit at nearly $3.5 trillion in 2047, with $8.67 trillion of exports and $12.12 trillion of imports.

The exercise was started by the cabinet secretary in December 2021, following which 10 sectoral groups were formed on rural and agriculture, infrastructure, resources, social vision, welfare, finance and economy, commerce and industry, technology, governance, and security and foreign affairs.

The vision hinges on the idea that India will have successfully dealt with most of its post-independence problems over the next 25 years, and will need to transcend a different set of challenges – prominent amongst which is a middle-income trap, where the country’s per capita income may stabilise around $5,000-6,000, followed by a slowdown in economic growth, Subrahmanyam had said in October.

The vision encompasses various aspects of development, including economic growth, social progress, environmental sustainability, and good governance, among others.

In the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections in 2024, the Centre’s projections for 25 years have also invited criticism.

"It is too early to speak about (being) a superpower because too many of our people are still super poor. We still have to first address the real problems of the poor, the marginalised, the deprived," Congress leader Shashi Tharoor had said in September.

Citing present inflation and unemployment, Tharoor added: “In these circumstances to paint fantasies of a distant future that is 25 years from now is a bit unfortunate.”