India, very proudly, is celebrating India@75. We are now talking about India@100. What worries me is that during these celebrations, we rarely talk about Bharat@75. The pandemic hit the poor of our Bharat the most. Millions of our brothers and sisters moved from poverty to extreme poverty. The levels of deprivation, divisiveness, joblessness, human suffering have increased. How can we talk about India@100 without talking about Bharat@100? Let’s not forget that 70% of India lives in rural areas. 17% of India lives in slums. What should be the Bharat@100 of our dreams? To me, it must be based on seven tenets. These include Santulit (balanced), Susanskrit (cultured), Suvidhya (educated), Samruddha (affluent), Sushasit (well governed), Surakshit (secured) and Swanandi (happy).

One can show that each of the seven tenets will succeed, only when the Gandhian values are preserved, promoted, and practiced. And therefore, our awards that achieve precisely these will be most critical in building Bharat@100 of our dream and much beyond.

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