This is how the country’s economy changed after independence, these important changes occurred from the first Independence Day until now.

The country’s first Prime Minister, Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru, and the current Prime Minister, Narendra Modi.

This is going to happen in independent India after almost six decades, when the Prime Minister of the country will address the nation from the Red Fort for the 11th consecutive time. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will make this record on the 78th Independence Day on August 15 and will once again speak of his resolve to develop India. Have you ever wondered how India has become such a big economic power today? How has the country’s economy changed since 1947 after independence from the British? Let us know about it…

You must have heard or read this somewhere about how much the British had exploited India. When the country got independence, its situation was bad. In such a situation, Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru, who became the first Prime Minister of the country, was faced with the challenge of re-establishing India as a country. The economy of the country had to be rebuilt from scratch. Therefore, the mixed economy model, which is also called the Nehru model in common parlance, was chosen at that time. The economy has undergone many similar changes since the independence of the country.

Nehru’s model and economy

Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of independent India, had to revive the country’s economy at a time when the world was divided into two factions of capitalism and communism and was waging the Cold War. In such a situation, he created his own economic model for a large country like India and opted for a mixed economy.

Former Prime Minister Nehru created large corporations, oil and steel companies at the expense of the government. At the same time, large research and educational institutes were also created. The private sector was also allowed to work under the supervision of the government and all were brought into the thread of nation building with the objectives of the five-year plan.

Before the British established their presence in the country, India’s contribution to the world economy was 22.6 percent in the year 1700, which dropped to just 3.8 percent in 1952.

When the country achieved food security

India may be the most populous country in the world today, but even at the time of independence, India’s population was not small. Such a large population cannot be fed by importing food grains from other countries. Therefore, India wanted its own “self-sufficient” food security. This was also necessary for India’s economy.

Thus, in 1965, during the tenure of Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri, India started the ‘Green Revolution’. Thanks to this, today the government is able to distribute food grains free of cost to 80 million people in the country. This helped save a large part of the country’s wealth; otherwise, India would have had to rely on importing a huge amount of food grains to feed its 140 crore population, whereas today we export wheat and rice to the world.

When new industrialists began to form in the country

If we look at the economic changes that have taken place in India since independence, the private sector also played a major role in building this country. Big industrialists like Tata-Birla were already present in the country. But the 1970s and 1980s was a time when the government machinery became a little soft and the era of the private sector began.

Today, the most valuable company in India is Reliance Industries. It was started by Dhirubhai Ambani in the 1970s and 1980s. During this period, brands such as Maruti, ThumsUp, Limca, Vimal and Bajaj Chetak were developed in the country. The private sector’s contribution to the economy started to increase.

PV The Narasimha Rao-Manmohan Singh duo changed history

One should talk about changes in India’s economy since independence and not mention the tenure of former Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao. This is not possible. The credit for taking India out of the Nehru era and into the modern world goes to him and his government’s Finance Minister Manmohan Singh.

The government then implemented the biggest economic reform in the country by abolishing the license and inspector raj and introduced ‘LPG’ (Liberalisation, Privatisation and Globalisation). This change strengthened the economic strength of India. After this, the private sector emerged rapidly in the country. Foreign investment started pouring in. India started competing with the world and the country wrote a new chapter of progress.

PM Modi outlined the goal of a “developed India”

After the 1990s, many changes took place in the Indian economy. Starting from infrastructure development, India bravely faced the recession of 2008 and then the Covid period of 2020. During this period, the Indian economy remained strong most of the time except for a few times. Now the current Prime Minister of the country, Narendra Modi, has shown the goal and dream of making the country a “Developed India”.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s tenure must also be seen from the perspective of the country’s economy. It is during his tenure that the idea of ​​the expressway took concrete shape in the country. Work has been done on the bullet train. A new startup revolution has begun in India and the government has encouraged more self-employment.

It was during his tenure that India worked towards taking its space power to its peak. The country has started thinking of becoming self-reliant in the strategic and military sectors and has worked towards strengthening the country in the energy sector through solar energy. Therefore, the government has set a target of becoming a developed India by 2047.