NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Ashok Kumar Lahiri on Friday, 16 October 2026, identified education, healthcare, infrastructure, and entrepreneurship as the four foundational pillars necessary to realise the vision of Viksit Bharat 2047. Speaking on the sidelines of the Pathway to Viksit Bharat event in New Delhi, Lahiri stressed that building a developed India by the centenary of independence demands progress on all four fronts simultaneously.

Entrepreneurship at the Core of Job Creation

Lahiri placed special emphasis on entrepreneurship, arguing that India's employment challenge cannot be solved by job-seekers alone. 'Entrepreneurship is very important. If everyone is looking for a job, we also need people who can create jobs for others,' he said. He directly urged students present at the event to consider entrepreneurship as a primary career path, stating: 'I encourage these young students to become entrepreneurs themselves.'

Lahiri expressed confidence in India's startup ecosystem, noting that it was growing rapidly, with several startups already achieving unicorn status. He also highlighted the strong performance of Indian companies in the information technology (IT) and artificial intelligence (AI) sectors as evidence of what domestic entrepreneurship can deliver at scale.

Historical Icons Cited as Entrepreneurial Benchmarks

To illustrate the transformative power of entrepreneurship, Lahiri invoked two towering figures from India's industrial history — Lala Shri Ram and Jamsetji Tata — as pioneers who demonstrated what visionary business-building could achieve for a nation. The reference underscored his broader point that job creation and productivity improvement are inseparable goals.

'There are so many of these pioneers who showed what entrepreneurship can be. So job creation and productivity, very important. Now productivity is basically, you have to combine human capital with physical capital and entrepreneurship,' he noted.

Infrastructure: The Non-Negotiable Enabler

On infrastructure, Lahiri was categorical: without it, even agricultural productivity cannot translate into economic gains. 'If you cannot go from your village with your fruits to the city or you can't commute to the towns, then you can't develop. So you need this,' he said. The remark reflects a recurring theme in India's development discourse — that last-mile connectivity remains a persistent bottleneck for rural economic participation.

Productivity Linked to Human and Physical Capital

Lahiri also addressed the mechanics of productivity growth, arguing that it depends on how effectively human capital, physical capital, and entrepreneurship are combined. This framing connects education and healthcare — which build human capital — with infrastructure and enterprise creation, presenting the four pillars not as independent priorities but as an interlocking system. This comes amid the government's broader push to position India as a developed economy by 2047, a goal that requires sustained 8–9% annual GDP growth over the next two decades, according to multiple policy assessments.

The Pathway to Viksit Bharat event signals an intensifying policy conversation around what structural reforms and investments will be needed to close the gap between India's current development trajectory and its 2047 ambitions.