The Covid-19 pandemic, in many ways, took aims at United Nations structuring and internal governance, so much so that many from the Western world, including the United States, pitched strongly for “doing away with its (UN) archaic functioning”. The new geopolitical dynamics seek a new global structure as the functioning standard operating procedures of the “heavily-bureaucratised UN system” find little or no relevance.
In fact, as the world debated the UN’s restructuring, something similar, yet more relevant in India’s context, struck me. Why should the UN’s old-fashioned development benchmarks, primarily GDP, poverty, inequality, mobility and mortality, among similar others, map a country’s real relevance to the world? The case here is India, which is today the talk of the world for the opportunities it has got in many ways to not only prove itself as the emerging power in Asia, but also a counter to China and the “alternative market of the developed global economies, including the US”.
Today, India’s goodwill diplomacy has transcended all borders and continents. The strategic relevance of India has grown manifold in the last few years as most countries want to do business with New Delhi. Unfortunately, the UNDP, the development arm of the UN, is still caged in its GDP growth formula and doesn’t recognise countries like India from the point of its recent achievements. It still ranks India at the 129th position among 189 global nations, belittling the country’s aspiration and steps taken in the last five years to be among the world’s top five economies. In fact, India, according to UN benchmarks, is even placed much lower than Bangladesh and Sri Lanka and many emerging African economies in some development categories, often bringing out a wrong development narrative.
I think it is an old-fashioned approach. In fact, the new modern indicators should be primarily based on opportunities a country shows for development and how much relevant it is to the world. Citing an example, Finland has the best living standards and the educational system on Earth. Have you heard anything about Finland during the entire Covid-19 pandemic or even its role and significance in countering China in the Indo-Pacific region or for that matter, any trade and business opportunities for the world looking for new markets after booting out of mainland China? Countries like India too need to be judged on what it has done to make a difference despite the odds like population, poverty and populism throwing many democratic challenges. India must be measured on its opportunities and not on data.
Would country comparisons be a sufficient tool as done by the “archaic” UN? No. The digitisation effect in agriculture is not yet mapped by the UN indicators. So have been the progress made in providing toilets to rural poor and ensuring mobility through public transportation (metro rail) for urban poor workers and middle class population and for many economically weaker sections, the air travel has been made a reality. But all that has gone unnoticed. Does UN know that in 2014, there were only 65 operational airports in India, now there are more than 100 operational airports and about 35 lakh passengers travelled under the UDAN scheme operational on nearly 250 routes? How many countries have invested so heavily in such cheaper mass mobility and their citizens’ social upward mobility?
Apart from government’s direct benefit transfers, energy benefits like gas and electricity connections for the poor to nearly 100% rural electrification, India has made strides in facilitating the poor with a health insurance package on the lines of Obamacare, which is almost matching the US in citizens’ benefits. Not to miss, nearly 27,000 new startups and the nation today is the new global hub of electronics manufacturing and the top consumer of green energy in making, ensuring climate security goals.
Do we need more to pass the UN’s development index test with a high ranking?