Republic Day, 2nd Independence Of India, 100% Literacy For Bharat Knowledge Silk Road – OpEd

Switch GDP to GDKP: Only 100% Literacy Can Catapult Bharat to $5-Trillion Economy

On the auspicious and proud occasion of Bharat’s 75th Republic Day, when India unshackled itself from the slavery of the British Raj and declared its independence, we would like to honour these magical moments by announcing an extraordinary event that will help us to move in the direction of 100 percent literacy which is the need of the hour.

The month of June 2024 will witness a Summit scheduled to be held in New Delhi, titled “100 percent literacy of India based on GDKP India (Gross Domestic KNOWLEDGE Product).” GDKP is the new economic measure of the Wealth of any Nation, based on “Knowledge.” 

Our aim is to promote the Bharat Knowledge Silk Road. As we all know and well understand, India and China are the top emerging global economic powers in the world. While in the early ‘50s they had almost the same GDP (China $239 billion and India $222 billion, and almost the same rate of literacy (China 20% and India 18%), the last 73 years have witnessed China outpace Bharat in both these indices.

Whereas the GDP of China has grown at a far higher pace than us and stands at $17.71 trillion, India has grown to a mere $3.372 trillion. Thus, China’s GDP has escalated by 4.74 times. 

There is no doubt that a dynamic Prime Minister like Mr Narendra Modi is trying his best to catapult India into a USD5 trillion economy, but this is really an uphill task.

What is currently needed in Bharat is a “discontinuity factor”. We would like to recall the situation of the USSR versus the USA in the race for establishing supremacy in the Space arena. At a time when USSR was clearly leading, US President Kennedy declared that, “A man will be despatched to the Moon and will return safely.” We all know how the USA won the race, and at that time too there was a “discontinuity factor”, which was Knowledge. NASA promoted and financed “knowledge” at all levels of the US society. Obviously, the leading information technology companies that today command the New York Stock Exchange are the consequence of that “discontinuity factor”.

Please note that in the last 73 years, China has notched up a literacy rate of almost 100%, while that of India is still lagging behind at 75%. This is undoubtedly a huge gap in the literacy rates of the two potential superpowers of the world and definitely we at Bharat would like to expeditiously bridge this gap.

The only way to achieve this target of 100% literacy is through digital economy tools, which will serve additionally to boost, upscale and modernize our country and our people. 

Here, “Knowledge” can be used as a “discontinuity factor” to upscale the indices of growth, through a new measure of wealth of nations called the GDKP (Gross Domestic KNOWLEDGE Product).

Bharat is the first country in the world that wants to calculate the wealth of its nation based on its vast and unending reservoirs of Knowledge (GDKP INDIA). GDKP INDIA would have turned into a full-fledged reality had COVID-19 not taken a toll on everything. The pandemic was a setback to the entire planet and to GDKP India’s progress as well.

The Government of India has named Prof. Umberto Sulpasso as Senior fellow of NITI Aayog, and NITI Aayog has appointed Prof. Sulpasso as the Director of GDKP India. His model was approved by CSO, by MoSPI and by NSC, and on an individual basis by the DG of CSO and CIS of MoSPI, which is to say by all major Indian statistical entities. Prof. Sulpasso has delivered the key application component of the India model for the Indian economy. That is to say that the identification of Knowledge Items, the Matrix of India K Production and Matrix of India K consumer.

The Center for Digital Future under the Annenberg School of the University of Southern California (1) and the GDKP India center (2), based in Bangalore are now together launching a “Call for Papers and  Videos” for the June summit on 100% literacy of India based on GDKP. The call for papers and videos will start from today at several locations across India.

We are delighted to call out to research institutes, universities, government agencies, entrepreneurial structures and financial entities, with a very special attention to Media companies.  We believe that GDKP is a two-sided coin, with Economy and Communication as its two most important paradigms and that is also the reason for the active participation of the renowned Digital Center of the Annenberg School of Journalism and Communication in this project. 

An independence from illiteracy is the need of the hour. To make Bharat 100 percent literate is the aim. This announcement is the very first step in this direction. On the joyous occasion of our Republic Day, let us all take a vow to work together towards this agenda. The Summit scheduled in mid-June aims to do much the same.  Let us celebrate this vow to end illiteracy.

The Center for Digital Future under the Annenberg School of the University of Southern California and the GDKP India center, based in Bangalore are now together launching a “Call for Papers and  Videos” for the June summit on 100% literacy of India based on GDKP. The call for papers and videos will start from today at several locations across India.

Notes:

1.  Dr. Jeff Cole is the founder and director of Center for Digital Future of USC Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism, author of the famous Internet Report that is tracing for the last 25 years impact of Internet in politics and business
2.  GDKP India Center is thr first in the world based in Bangalore, CEO is Dr. Hari Krishna Maram, head of Academics is Dr. Manju Gupta