Independent India is 60 years young! And it is time to look back and reminisce on all we have accomplished. This is also the perfect time to review the highs and lows, and more importantly introspect, to undertake a self-evaluation, and think of where we march on from here.

60 years is a short time in a country’s history, but we have much to be proud of:
* One of our biggest achievements is remaining democratic and secular against all odds and powerful challenges. The world’s second most populous country with a Hindu majority can today boast of a Sikh prime minister from a political party led by a Catholic woman leader, a woman president (till the other day a Muslim president), and a chief justice of the Supreme Court who is from a so-called untouchable caste – that is as inclusive and praiseworthy as it can get!

* The Green Revolution not only put India on the agriculture map of the world and helped us attain self-sufficiency in food production, but also ushered in an era of industrialization by virtue of lateral development.

* The White Revolution helped us move out of an era of massive shortage of milk and milk products and made India the largest producer of milk in the world.

* It makes us proud to have a reasonably good growth rate shooting up from three percent in the 1960s and ‘70s to 8.5 percent plus at the present, generating new economic forces which have the potential of making India the third largest economy in the world by 2050. Our exports have increased from $1 billion to $125 billion over the past three decades. The economy is changing dramatically with agriculture now accounting for just about 23 percent of the GDP as opposed to over 50 percent in the 1950s. We have emerged as one of the world’s largest upcoming middle-class populations, creating an immense market of potential, and also building a talent pool for the world’s enterprises.