India is entering her 75th year as an independent nation. In 1947 the life expectancy of the average Indian was 31 years, today it is 69 years. India's GDP in 1947 was under Rs 3 lakh crore, today it is close to Rs 3 trillion.

As India enters a landmark year, there is a significant room for improvement. While we can take heart from the fact that we have more than doubled life expectancy to 69 years, even now India is ranked 125th in the world and the global average is nearly 73.

There is no doubt that the country is now a force to reckon with when it comes to the global economy. India accounts for nearly 4 percent of the global GDP. In a bid to acquire economic strength, technological vitality and moral leadership by the time India celebrates its 75th year of Independence, industry body CII launched the India@75 initiative.

In an interview to Shereen Bhan, TV Narendran, President of CII, said, "The most significant change has been the opening up of the economy because that has really helped us unleash the entrepreneurial spirit that is there in India. We have seen a lot of development over the last 30 years, which we have recently celebrated. So that journey continues."

Narendran said India has done well in education but needs to do a lot more.

"The one thing which we have done well but which we could do much better is education. We have done better in the higher end of education than in primary education. A lot of the technical talent that India provides to the world has happened because of the education that we have in place but a lot more needs to be done there."

Sanjiv Bajaj, President-designate of CII, said, "Over the last three decades of liberalisation we have seen all kinds of opening up, greater competition, we have companies that are competitive not only in India but at a global level now. However, there has been a significant change that has happened in the last decade and half of which is the way the government has adopted digitisation."

"The entire digital protocols that have been set along with the trinity of JAM - Jan Dhan accounts, Aadhaar for KYC and mobile phones -- is enabling a country as large as ours to get digitised at levels, which nobody could believe. This sets the infrastructure for significant amount of future growth as we move forward. So I would say the entire digital focus of this country has been a significant move."

Rajan Navani, CII India@75 Council, said, "The early adoption and accelerated push towards skill development that started out in 2007 with the formation of the Skills Development Council and many other initiatives that corporate India took on to kind of create an accelerated movement around skilling people so that there could be enhanced livelihood and mobilisation of livelihood was a very good move forward."

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(Edited by : Bivekananda Biswas)