India’s Bold Beginnings Need Enduring Commitments for Long-Term Growth

India excels in launching large-scale projects like Aadhaar and UPI with remarkable speed. However, sustaining such initiatives is a challenge due to a cultural focus on rapid growth over long-term durability. Unlike nations like Germany and South Korea, which prioritize generational planning, India often faces fragmented institutions and short-term exits. To ensure sustainable growth, India must foster patient domestic investment, incentivize institutional stewardship, and redefine success beyond quick wins. True progress lies in balancing bold beginnings with enduring commitments.

India has always been a nation that thrives on ambition, embracing audacious goals and executing projects at an extraordinary scale. From its groundbreaking digital innovations to its rapid economic strides, the country’s ability to launch initiatives with remarkable speed is unparalleled. However, beneath the surface of these dazzling beginnings lies an often-overlooked challenge: ensuring sustainability and longevity after the initial applause fades.

This observation, originally articulated by Aakanxit Khullar, Vice President at Goldman Sachs, in an article published on Money Control, highlights a critical cultural and structural issue. While India excels at initiating transformative projects, it struggles with the less glamorous but essential task of institutional stewardship—sustaining and consolidating its achievements over time.

The Velocity of Indian Growth

India’s track record of swift and large-scale implementation is undeniable. The Aadhaar program, for instance, enrolled over 1.3 billion people in record time, while the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) now processes more daily transactions than Visa and Mastercard combined within the country. Startups, too, scale at a pace that inspires global admiration, with many attracting millions of users within months and becoming templates for international replication.

Yet, the question remains: who ensures these initiatives endure? As projects mature, the focus often shifts away from the hard work of building durable institutions, leaving promising ventures vulnerable to fragmentation or decline.

A Cultural Preference for Speed Over Stability

Khullar argues that India’s economic and social frameworks inherently value speed over durability and acceleration over consolidation. This tendency is evident in the startup ecosystem, where founders often exit early, selling controlling stakes to foreign investors. Despite raising nearly $10 billion in the first half of 2023—placing India third globally in startup funding—the country’s entrepreneurial landscape often prioritizes quick wins over enduring impact.

In contrast, mature economies like Germany, South Korea, and Singapore emphasize endurance and generational planning. Germany’s Mittelstand companies, for instance, are medium-sized, family-owned enterprises that have been nurtured over decades. Similarly, Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, Temasek, adopts a 20-to-30-year planning horizon, ensuring stability despite short-term market fluctuations. South Korea’s semiconductor success, embodied by Samsung, is another example of patient, long-term investment paying off.

India, however, remains caught in a cycle of rapid ownership changes and fragmented institutions, which undermines institutional memory and accountability. Promising ventures often fail to evolve into robust, enduring structures, forcing the nation to repeatedly rebuild rather than reinforce its achievements.

The Semiconductor Case Study

India’s semiconductor ambitions offer a telling example. While the government has announced multi-billion-dollar incentive programs to boost the sector, these initiatives often falter after the initial fanfare. In contrast, countries like Taiwan and South Korea have established their semiconductor dominance through decades of strategic investment and continuity. Companies such as TSMC and Samsung have anchored ecosystems that enable long-term growth, a model India has yet to replicate.

The Need for a Cultural and Strategic Shift

Addressing these structural challenges requires more than financial capital or policy changes—it demands a cultural shift. India must foster a domestic investment ecosystem that prioritizes long-term gains over short-term returns. Entrepreneurs need to redefine success, focusing on building legacies rather than achieving quick exits. Policymakers, too, must create incentives that reward stewardship and accountability, rather than merely celebrating rapid launches or foreign investments.

Khullar also emphasizes the role of India’s globally educated elite in this transformation. Many of the country’s brightest minds view India as a stepping stone rather than a destination, opting for opportunities abroad or short-term roles that avoid the complexities of institutional stewardship. To reverse this trend, India must offer clearer pathways and incentives for its talent to engage in long-term, meaningful contributions to domestic institutions.

Redefining Success

India’s future success depends on its ability to balance bold beginnings with enduring commitments. Creation alone is insufficient; sustainable growth requires the patience to build institutions that last. This means cultivating domestic investors with a generational outlook, entrepreneurs who aspire to create lasting legacies, and policymakers who prioritize long-term stability over immediate gains.

As Khullar aptly concludes, “The mark of national maturity is not how loudly we launch, but how quietly we endure.” India’s growth story will not be defined solely by those who initiate change but also by those who stay the course to ensure its lasting impact.

This article draws insights from Aakanxit Khullar’s piece published on Money Control. This article is available at https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/opinion/india-must-build-institutions-that-last-and-deliver-13109204.html