Column

To a young person growing up today, India appears to be a country poised for great times. The economic is growing, jobs are aplenty and there is all round confidence that things will get better.

Quite a far cry from even a generation ago, when India appeared perpetually struggling to manage, when the Hindu rate of growth was outstripped by population growth and the situation appeared bleak.

We were members of that dreaded club, the Third World, showing some promise but with very little chance of fulfilling it.

A generation before that, when India won Independence, it was even worse.But today was reached after we went through those difficult yesterdays.

It was the ideas, the plans and the sacrifices of previous generations that have brought us to this destination.

The institutes of higher learning that were set up way back when produced generations of bright students who went on to not only raise India’s profile but also create organisations that have contributed so much to the economy.

The Green Revolution has given us self-sufficiency in food, the Telecom boom is because of the breakthrough ideas of 20-odd years ago.Many mistakes were made of course.

Wrong roads were taken, misguided policies were put in place in the firm belief that this was good for the country. Maybe we could have reached where we are today a long time ago.

But it is no small feat that we held on to our founding values, continued with our democracy, barring the dark period of the Emergency and did not lose faith in the Constitution, or in ourselves.

Today, at a time when we turn 60 as an independent nation, it is a good time to look at the journey so far and the road ahead.

In keeping with our philosophy of providing a platform to ideas, DNA brings you a special series on India at 60, with 60 articles written by a wide range of contributors looking at a wide variety of issues-politics, the economy, business, education, the social sector, cinema, art and the media, among other things.Each of our contributors knows their subject well — either as a significant player or as an expert.

Their collective views and wisdom, about the past, the present and the future, give us a composite picture of India at 60.