I am continuing by summarising the points that I gave in a talk at the Charcha 2020 event.
Mission 10-20-30 is the one big idea to make Indians free and rich. It envisions 10 crore new jobs in the next 20 months with a monthly income of Rs 30,000+.
The idea is centred around jobs because jobs are going to be our biggest challenge going around. A nation cannot survive on government handouts. Without jobs, there is no production. Without production, there are no incomes. Without incomes, there is no demand. Without demand, there is no production. Without production, there is no growth. The cycle of transformation begins with jobs.
There are two big ideas to get the job creation process underway:
- Return $1 trillion of the people’s wealth to the people. This is the idea of “Dhan Vapasi”. It entails returning Rs 1 lakh to every Indian family (26+ crore) for the next three years. This is not Universal Basic Income – this is Universal Wealth Return. It is not funded by taxes, but my monetising public assets (which we will discuss shortly). Money in the hands of people will undo the demand shock that we are facing. When people spend on their needs, it creates a “demand pull”. This will kickstart the creation of new jobs across the value chain.
- Invest $1 trillion in infrastructure and facilitate the creation of special economic zones. India needs hard infrastructure – roads, high-speed rail, airports, ports. It also needs the soft infrastructure to ensure rule of law – police, courts and judges, contract enforcement, property rights. All of this will create good jobs that will pay well. In addition, India needs to attract global manufacturing to shift to India. One way is to replicate what China did in the 1980s – create special economic zones with new rules. This is the time when we can replace 10 crore Chinese workers with Indian markers – and thus do to China what China did to the world in the 1980s and 1990s.
By focusing on jobs as the central theme, Mission 10-20-30 is what India needs to create its Deng moment.
The obvious question is where does India get this $2 trillion to launch Mission 10-20-30?
Tomorrow: India’s Mission 10-20-30 (Part 8)
