India a Century old republic-A layman’s view on India in 2050

We celebrated our 70^th Independence Day ealier this year. Our nation has grown by leaps and bounds and is poised to enter its most exciting years yet. In this post I shall be taking a concise look into how different India could look by 2050 when our Republic will be 100 years old.

We shall have the biggest population on Earth by 2050 with over 1.69 billion humans calling themselves Indians. This will be 300 million more people than our nearest competitor China. India shall be Home to the largest number of Muslims & Hindus globally with 311 million Muslims & 1.3 Billion Hindus calling it home. This will be a young population with more than 1.1 billion people between the ages of 16-64. This brings great opportunity for India as this Labor force can be utilized in factories and Offices to supply goods and services to the world. We must also note that the Working age populations of China, Japan, Russia and Much of Europe will decline during the period from now to 2050. This in turn may create a wave of Economic Migration away from India to these regions much like we see a large number of people migrating to the Middle East for Jobs today. However, if this massive population of working age people cannot find employment and earn satisfactory income, the youth bulge will become a demographic bomb, because a large mass of frustrated youth is likely to become a potential source of social and political instability. History has shown us that events like the Rise of the Third Reich, The Iranian Revolution etc. were preceded by a Youth Bulge wherein the youth could not be gainfully employed and grew frustrated with Society and the prevailing order in the country. It is absolutely critical that India finds gainful employment for these teeming millions. Much of our food will have to be imported as there isn’t enough arable land in the subcontinent to feed 1.7 bil people. India will face a lot of water scarcity issues as well as Himalayan glaciers recede and many rain fed rivers dry up. That said we have enough time to plan for these eventualities by building rainwater harvesting systems, check dams and storage ponds.

Samsung heavy industries 21000TEU Vessel, the Type India wishes to attract with deepwater ports.

India is projected to be the second largest economy in the world in 2050 with a PPP GDP of over 42$Tr (for comparison our Purchasing Power Parity GDP today is approximately 8.5$Tr). Our annual per capita Income is also projected to increase to approximately 42000$ simultaneously. All of this has massive implications. The India of 2050 shall no longer be the agrarian republic it was in 1950 but an industrial behemoth with immense industrial corridors stretching from Delhi to Mumbai & Kolkata, there will be vast economic zones stretching across the length & Breadth of the nation. These Zones will be served by one of the largest Railway & Highway networks of the world  with goods being transported to an increasing number of Deepwater ports we have started building now with Vizingham in Kerala, Krishnapatnam In Andhra Pradesh and Enayam in Tamil Nadu being the first of these gateways to the Ocean. There will also be Barges carrying goods on the body of our largest rivers with some barges making the journey all the way from Delhi to Kolkata. This will be an India very much part of a Broader Trans Asia trade network with Highways & Rail links stretching from the tip of Ladakh all the way to the Coast of the South China Sea in Vietnam. This Economy will be a labor intensive one with vast numbers of skilled & unskilled people working in manufactories building goods for the World. The Service sector should also be one of the largest in the world with many people finding employment there as well.

 The Shtorm a possible design for future Indian Supercarrier

With the growth of the economy our military strength shall also increase, by 2050 our defence budget should be an eye popping 1.05$Tr which will be nearly 25% of the entire projected GDP of Pakistan in 2050 as well. Our Army should be a far more indianized force with nearly all major weapon systems being made by our Public & Private Military Industrial Complex inside the Boundaries of India. The first generation Indian Artillery systems which are on trials now will then be on the verge of being replaced by a new generation of faster, better more lethal guns. Our Armor should have become a nearly all Indian Affair filled with 5-7000 FMBTs &Upgraded next generation Armor with only a few T series tanks remaining as part of reserve detachments. The Indian Soldier should be a far more well equipped and networked individual with information being fed to our troops from constellations of Indian Satellites above. Our Air defence should be far better with Indian Long Range SAMs taking over from S400 units which should be entering Service in the next few years. Our Airforce should be a complete 50-60 sqdrn force with unmanned stealth aircraft and sixth generation aircraft beginning to replace the fifth generation aircraft we are looking and inducting in the coming decades. The Indian Navy is projected to grow to become a 300 ship + Navy comprising of over a hundred destroyers & frigates with over five dedicated Carrier Battle Group’s patrolling the oceans, assisting these should be another five to seven Landing Helicopter Dock assault groups. The Undersea Arm should be a forty to fifty submarine affair with 12 SSBNs 12 SSNs and another 30 SSKs patrolling the depths of the IOR.

In short given the current pace of growth and reforms by 2050 India is projected to return to the position it held on the global stage till the 1600’s as an undisputed Economic and military Superpower.

This is just a concise layman’s view into what our republic could look like by 2050, I have not gone into too much detail because each of these areas can form the basis for a thesis by itself. All information herein is based on open source information and projections!