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“Delivering to an Aspirational India” asked how a rising, impatient citizenry could be met with institutions that deliver—fast, fairly, and at scale. The summit treated aspiration as a governance brief: redesign public systems, finance inclusion, and modernise delivery so opportunities reach households beyond metro cores. It framed India’s next leap as an execution problem—aligning policy, platforms, and accountability so the promise of growth converts into lived mobility.

Deliberations connected inclusive finance and digital rails to ground-level service delivery, while the Thinkers & Writers Forum invited rigorous, field-anchored scholarship to inform practice. By convening domain experts, practitioners, and administrators, the program emphasised that evidence and design—not slogans—must steer decisions if aspiration is to become opportunity.

Recognition segments reinforced the message: award citations to institutions advancing Aadhaar-enabled services, card-less transactions, and financial inclusion demonstrated how technology and process reform can shrink friction for citizens. The takeaway was clear—governance wins when it turns ambition into dependable, everyday outcomes.

2014 marks an important milestone in India’s developmental journey. Close on the heels of one of the most hotly contested national elections, a new government is going to be in place soon. India is changing and so are its aspirations. Therefore, it is imperative that the new powers-that-are caters to this generation of aspirational Indians. To be sure, the winds of change had started to blow for some time now.

The run-up to these changes had several dimensions. On the one hand, India has been a long-standing democracy with the intent of delivering representation and voice to the disadvantaged by increasing their participation in the mainstream. On the other hand, while rapid strides were made in economic liberalisation post-1991, even then there is a question on the social legitimacy of our market economy. The key challenge for economic governance, hence, has been to find the right balance between democratic politics and free-market economy.

Another challenge has been reluctance on the part of state to cede more space to the private sector. There is need to relook at the terms of engagement between state and the private sector. And to strengthen this engagement through measures such as reforms in regulation and institutions that manage the state and private sector interface through state and citizen participation. A new growth agenda is needed.

Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) and agriculture are cornerstone sectors in the Indian context generating employment for 55 per cent of Indian population and make a significant contribution to the GDP. However, financial inclusion has slowed down with just 5 per cent of MSMEs and 12 per cent of farmers having access to institutional finance. The financial sector has failed to meet the needs of this sector.

The dream that every individual should have a bank account by 2015 still remains a distant reality. RBI’s move to amend the priority sector lending (PSL) norms to ensure a healthy balance sheet to the banks has been proving to be a deterrent to growth of the priority sector. The question to ask is: who is responsible for the NPAs – the PSL advances or Big businesses? It is time to revisit the PSL if we are to move forward on our dream of real financial inclusion.

The growth challenges in the world economy have been affecting all sectors including the banking sector. With all indications of an economic revival, it is imperative for the sector to assess its preparedness for riding the wave. Now, with the advent of new banks and the growing NPAs, the preparedness has to be fool-proof. The advent of new banks in a highly commoditised sector opens the need to create a differentiated brand for the digital consumer by leveraging technology in delivering superior customer experience, innovative products profitably – all within the changing regulatory environment. Industry estimates of investments in technology indicate a move in this direction. Financial sector changes including differentiated banking, inclusion beyond the Nachiket Mor Committee recommendations and greater infusion of technology are needed.

The new aspirational India also needs to create new paradigms to reskill itself, generate new ideas to bridge the employment gap and cater to the next-generation global consumer.