By: Lt Col JS Sodhi (Retd), Editor, GSDN
On July 30, 2025 as the 47th US President announced tariffs on India along with penalties for purchasing Russian arms & oil, the Indian media and social media was agog with the effects of these tariffs in the coming times with heating debates and discussions noticeable in all forms of the electronic & digital media. On August 06, 2025 the tariffs on India were increased to 50%.
I am no economist and can’t comment on the effect the tariffs will have on India but what hit me the most were Donald Trump’s words on July 30, 2025 that India is a “dead economy”. Calling the most populous nation in the world with 1.46 billion population and the world’s fourth largest economy with the GDP of US$ 4.1 trillion, was an outright insult to each of the 1.46 billion Indian citizens.
Of the three super-powers ie the USA, Russia and China, India has normal relations with Russia and tensions with the USA and China. Donald Trump’s stance on India since he was inaugurated as the 47th US President on January 20, 2025, has certainly not been pro-India. Whether it was him praising Pakistan during his inauguration speech and not mentioning India at all in the entire 30 minutes speech, or him taking credit 32 times for effecting the India-Pakistan ceasefire after the 88-hour conflict between the two nations in May 2025, a claim outrightly rejected by India or his words calling India a dead economy, none of Donald Trump’s actions inspire strong India-US relations any more, that existed in the last one decade.
Donald Trump’s rhetorical remarks on India are not an aberration but the climax of the anti-India stance that the USA has for decades. The US 7th Fleet steaming towards the Bay of Bengal as the 1971 India-Pakistan War raged on and the US refusal to give India supercomputers in the 1980s are two of many such examples.
For decades, the USA has allowed Khalistani & Jihadi terrorists to use the American soil to wage a war on India. It is surprising that the Indian mainstream & social media didn’t see it coming in the last one decade and were agog with singing peans and praises for the USA and Donald Trump.
As India stands at a critical juncture in international geopolitics with tensions with two of the three superpowers, and seven out of the eight India’s neighbours not on friendly terms with India, sole exception being Bhutan, and with the two-front war to be waged by the China & Pakistan combine any time after 2030, it is now time for the Great Indian Leap!
The national animal of India is the Bengal Tiger (Panthera tigris). Tigers are famous for their leaps which can be up to 16 metres vertically and in the forward distance up to 25 metres, a remarkable achievement considering the fact that the length of an average tiger is 9 to 10 feet. And with this gigantic leap, the tiger catches its target.
India’s target for the next five years till 2030 is to increase her economic and military might despite the grave geopolitical situation that exists today in South Asia and with the growing uncertainty in global geopolitics, for the two-front war by China & Pakistan likely any time after 2030, which will be in all seven domains of modern warfare – land, sea, air, cyber, electromagnetic spectrum, space and water. India’s economic and military growth in the next five years has to be prodigious.
And for this to happen, India has to be poised for the Great Indian Leap.
Factors for the Great Indian Leap
India has made outstanding progress since her Independence in 1947. From being called a snake charmers nation in the 1950s, today India is the nation with an economy that outstrips the current economic growth of many developed nations. For a nation whom the British leader Winston Churchill had stated on March 06, 1947 that “Indian leaders will be men of straw”, Indians have proved him wrong and India’s strong progress in economic, diplomatic and military fields is attributed to the strong Indian leadership from 1947 till date.
However, the current regional and global uncertainties that exist today with the two-front war on the horizon to happen any time after five years, it is the period 2025-2030 that needs extra vigour and vitality that needs to outstrip the pace of progress India has made in the last 78 years since independence.
Everything is possible. Two examples of China, prove the impossibility theory incorrect.
One, in 2007, China had no high-speed rail network, also called bullet trains. In 2017, China achieved the maximum high-speed rail length for any nation in the world. As on date, China has 45,000 kilometres of high-speed rail network which connects all major Chinese cities.
Two, in 2015, no Chinese university ranked in the top 500 universities in the world. China launched World Class 2.0 programme with the aim of having atleast two Chinese universities in the top 500 of the world by 2030. The target was achieved well before time in 2023.
The Great Indian Leap in the next five years has to incorporate the following factors:
Accountability & Responsibility: For every infrastructure big or small, for any central or state schemes, new or old, accountability and responsibility should be fixed. Non-performers should be removed and those be given the tasks which are lagging behind schedule. It is a pity that Gurugram, nick-named as the Millennium City, which contributes maximum tax to the state of Haryana, during each year’s monsoon is in a pitiable state. The inconvenience caused to residents and the loss of business is of enormous proportions during the three-month period from July-September when monsoon hits north India. Air Chief Marshal Amar Preet Singh, the Chief of Air Staff, Indian Air Force on May 29, 2025 expressed dismay at the delay in the delivery of fighter jets stating that “timeline is a big issue”. With the two-front war on the horizon, such delays are unacceptable and accountability and responsibility needs to be enforced in the strictest manner possible.
Role of Indian mainstream & social media: The Indian mainstream & social media needs to highlight issues requiring attention, rather than only bring forth communal & religious issues and deep state & conspiracy theories, which are fast losing their charm and effect. It is time to face the real issues & challenges that are staring at the nation. The media be it electronic or social, plays a very important part in shaping narratives and has great viewership and following. Their role as the Fourth Estate has to be in national interest and not only focussed on Television Rating Points which garner more advertising revenue, and electoral advantages. Money and political advantage should take a back-seat for these media outlets for the next five years and the national interest should be the sole criteria for the challenges that India will face after 2030. USA and the West have become developed nations as they being democracies, have encouraged questioning. Russia & China have become developed nations as they have a single political party system, and hence questioning is discouraged. India is a democracy, hence questioning by the press will speed up the progress rate.
Political Unity: On issues of national security, economic growth and military prowess, the political parties of India need to be united, irrespective of the political party’s ideology. The challenge in front of India needs the political parties to express solidarity on critical issues, irrespective of the outcome of elections at any level – national, state or municipal. The next five years have to be treated as a war effort as the two-front war clouds have started darkening. On March 17, 2025, General Upendra Dwivedi, the Chief of the Army Staff, Indian Army, while delivering the fourth General Bipin Rawat Memorial Lecture in New Delhi remarked that two-front war was no longer a possibility-it’s a reality.
Framing of the National Security Strategy: India needs to formulate the National Security Strategy (NSS) within the next two months and put it in public domain. The NSS framed should spell out clearly what are the external and internal threats of India. This would greatly help in the whole-of-the-nation to deal with the adversarial situation that is just five years away. After all, fighting a war isn’t the sole responsibility of a nation’s military only. Every ministry, organisation and individual have to contribute in war preparedness according to its capacity and capability. The future war to be waged by China & Pakistan will have to be met by enhanced technological, economic and of course military power, for which the NSS has to clearly spell out the path ahead so that all public and private sectors contribute with total clarity. A famous Chinese proverb says “The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second-best time is now”.
Finally, US President Donald Trump’s Tariff war on India and his remark of the Indian economy being dead should be the transfiguration of the Great Indian Leap. Jane Goodall’s quote “What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make” has deep significance for 1.46 billion Indian citizens and all public and private sector organisations that the next five years have to see a transformational India that is prepared for the two-front war that will happen any time after 2030.
About the Author
Lt Col JS Sodhi (Retd) is the Founder-Editor, Global Strategic & Defence News and has authored the book “China’s War Clouds: The Great Chinese Checkmate”. He tweets at @JassiSodhi24.
