India’s Grand Strategy A Framework for the Future that Builds on Bharat’s Ancient Statecraft of Peace, Prosperity, and Planet

Introduction The making of a nation’s grand strategy is the process of identifying, pursuing, and delivering the country’s highest national goals. The absence of a clearly articulated, all-encompassing, whole-of-state grand strategy in India’s statecraft is a vacuum that is out of sync with the trajectory of a rising nation. Today, Bharat is less than two years away from the deadline it has set itself for becoming the world’s third-largest economy by 2025; [1] it has become the world’s fastest growing economy over the past few years, [2] is a partner in promoting security in the Indian Ocean Region, [3] and has eradicated extreme poverty. [4] It is time for India to put together the pieces of the complex puzzle that is a grand strategy and mould a cohesive, focused approach to national, defence, and economic security—all functioning together, each powering the other. As the “highest form of statecraft,” [5] grand strategy is a governance design that covers all aspects of securing a nation. These include managing external and internal threats, delivering economic prosperity, ensuring resource management, engaging in effective foreign policy, and embedding technology in governance, all of which need to function together. India has achieved all six necessary conditions to craft a grand strategy—the economic resources to finance aspirations, the defence infrastructure to deliver security, the political intent to pursue self-interest, the geopolitical maturity to engage with and strengthen global multipolarity, the policy confidence to tie up complex international relationships in trade and investments, and the administrative competence to deliver all these aspects.