Eminent missile scientist Arun Tiwari who co-authored five books with former President APJ Abdul Kalam, including the widely-read Wings of Fire, believes India has tremendous potential for growth in the post-Covid period. While he is optimistic, Tiwari cautioned, “If India misses out on this opportunity to shine, it will never get one again.”
“To achieve this and surge ahead, we must focus on five areas — making agriculture profitable; repatriating manufacturing (move away from being a trading economy and become a manufacturing one; enhancing infrastructure; enabling efficient supply chains, and promoting energy independence,” the 65-year-old said in a tete-a-tete with STOI at his residence in Gachibowli.
These recommendations also find a mention in his latest offering – India Awakes: Post Coronavirus New World Order – that the adjunct professor at University of Hyderabad penned with Bart S Fisher, a renowned American attorney, recognised as among the founders in the field of international trade and investment law in the United States.
Drawing on the teachings of his mentor, Abdul Kalam, the city-based scholar also upheld the need to de-link electoral politics from developmental politics for India to chart its success story. Tiwari admits the country is displaying signs of change. “The good part is we can see some resolve and movement in the right direction,” he says, however, underlining how Atmanirbhar Bharat is no longer an option but an “existential necessity”.
