The Jan Dhan, Aadhar, Mobile (JAM) Trinity went on to become India’s identity on the global stage and was hailed as a game changer. Nandan Mohanrao Nilekani, who co-founded Infosys, gave up his cushy job to become the first chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI).  The JAM trinity provided the very basis of the country’s digital public infrastructure supported by the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), an experiment that several other countries tried to adopt.

The primary architects of this massive revolution were Nilekani along with former Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian and ex Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan. 

All of them were, however, outsiders and not part of the so-called power corridor.

A throwback to the economic growth journey of the country highlights that the key economic revolutions that have shaped India’s growth trajectory over the decades were driven by individuals who joined the government through lateral entry. 

They were not from the bureaucracy, popularly known as the “Steel Frame of India.”

Besides the digital transformation driven by Aadhar identity, there were the white, green, telecom and IT, and missile revolutions that catapulted India into the league of powerful nations on the global stage — all driven by people who were outside the famous Steel Frame of India.

Green Revolution

In 1965, food shortage was acute, having hit millions of citizens. It was then that Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri, who gave a clarion call – Jai Jawan Jai Kisan – which turned into a rallying cry among the farmers in predominantly agrarian India. Shastri roped in agriculture geneticist M.S. Swaminathan. The latter was given a mandate: to turn India self-sufficient in food grains.

The rest is history.

Swaminathan, who continued to serve till 1978, was successful in changing the country’s status from a food-deficient economy to one of the world’s leading foodgrain producing nations.

His initiatives led to an increase in agricultural production, especially in Haryana, Punjab, and Uttar Pradesh. Major milestones, as part of his efforts, were the development of high-yielding seed varieties of wheat, which were rust-resistant.

White Revolution

While Swaminathan was hailed as the Father of India’s Green Revolution, it was Verghese Kurien who is credited for making India the largest milk manufacturer in the world. The milk and dairy cooperative, Amul, changed the course of lakhs of Indians, especially women, and Kurien went on to earn the titles ‘Father of White Revolution in India’ and ‘The Milkman of India’.

Kurien quit his job and started the milk cooperative movement, later rechristened as Amul, from Gujarat’s Anand district.

Operation Flood was launched in 1970 by him to kickstart India’s White Revolution as an experiment. It created a national milk grid in over 700 towns and cities by linking producers across India and reducing seasonal price fluctuations to ensure milk producers got a major share of the income generated from consumers. It also ensured farmers got fair market prices regularly. The village milk producers were the backbone of Operation Flood.

Telecom Revolution

Sam Pitroda, a non-resident Indian living in the US, was then roped in by late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in the mid-1980s to bring about changes in the fields of computer, information technology (IT) and telecom. The two decades that followed sowed the seeds of a communication revolution that later drove India’s IT prowess.

Missile Revolution

India’s missile revolution was brought about by none other than scientist A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, who later went on to become the country’s President.

Kalam, an aeronautical engineer by training and an aerospace scientist, played an instrumental role in the May 1998 Pokhran-II nuclear tests. His involvement in nuclear power in India earned him the title of Missile Man of India. He is one of India’s most celebrated scientists and statesmen, was President of India from 2002 to 2007. 

He significantly advanced rocketry in India’s Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). Heir to the vision of Professor Vikram Sarabhai, who set India on the course of a socio-economically oriented space programme, Kalam was the man who raised India’s eyes to the stars and helped India join the community of spacefaring nations.

End Of License Raj

Montek Singh Ahluwalia, former Finance Secretary and Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission, is another name that will be etched in India’s economic history. 

Ahluwalia, one of the first secretaries in the government of India to join the system through lateral entry, is credited to be the principal architect of India’s 1991 economic liberalisation, driving reforms from the mid-1980s to 2014. As a key policymaker, he helped dismantle the much abhorred License Raj.  Not just that, he also went on to reduce trade barriers while opening the economy to foreign investment, transitioning India toward a high-growth and market-oriented system.

He had authored a crucial internal paper titled, “Restructuring India’s Industrial Trade and Fiscal Policies," which came to be known as the “M-document,” providing the blueprint for reforming the trade, industrial and fiscal sectors. He advocated steady, calculated reforms that enabled India to “turn the corner” after the 1991 Balance of Payments crisis. He was pivotal in removing restrictive import controls, reducing industrial licensing and simplifying the financial markets, which he mentioned in his book, “Backstage: The Story Behind India’s High Growth Years”.

As India now sets its eyes on achieving Viksit Bharat status by 2047 amid geopolitical and geoeconomic volatility, the next revolution could well be driven by artificial intelligence.

Will it be steered by an outsider – a face from outside the Steel Frame?