A strong and powerful nation is built upon the pedestal of dedication and hard work of its citizens in synergy with meticulously formulated smart planning by the Government and its agencies. However, inequality in the society is one of the major hurdles in the significant mission of nation building which needs to be overcome through well tailored strategic planning. While doing so it needs to be borne in mind that the meaning of nation building and the strategies to be adopted in this direction keep on changing with the changing times and lifestyles especially in the contemporary era with novel technologies evolving at an unprecedented pace and ruling the roost in every sphere of life. It would not be out of context to mention that ‘Nation Building’ is a multidi- mensional concept, and it involves the active participa- tion of its citizens in every walk of life and among its var- ious facets, the most important one as of today seems to be the dire need for reducing the social and econom- ic disparity existing in the society and creating an enabling environment, wherein individuals can live freely and attain their best in life. There is ample evi- dence across the globe that proves beyond doubt that social and economic disparity leads to multiple social ills including poor health and education of citizens, increas- ing crime graph followed by a long list of other fallouts that can even erupt into a disastrous situation. It is an acknowledged fact that in order to overcome the exist- ing economic inequality in Indian society, the govern- ment needs to increase its social spending. Over the years especially during the recent years it has been found that increasing public expenditure on education, health and social protection has helped to tame the ever rising inequality among the poor and rich in India.
However the existing scenario leaves much less room for despair and in fact provides every reason to be opti- mistic. This can be well gauged from the fact that despite all the challenges that nation faces today espe- cially in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Indian economy has emerged as the fastest-growing major economy in the world. On Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) term, Price Waterhouse Coopers has already predicted that India will take over the USA by the year 2050 to become the second largest economy in the world. On a meticulous analysis of the situation one can easily conclude that the massive growth in Indian econ- omy is going to provide immense economic power in the hands of the Government, which can be appropriately used for the public welfare and to address the problems of inequality, poverty, education, health etc., thus mak- ing India one of the greatest nations in the world. While the incumbent Govt has been relentlessly working in this direction, it would not be wrong to state that in India, the ratio of Tax to GDP ratio is still less as compared to the global average and it discourages social spending.
Therefore there is a dire need for the government to plug the leakages in the Indian tax system to improve the aforesaid Tax to GDP ratio. This ultimately will pro- vide the required economic muscle needed by the state to end the hurdle of inequality and achieving the opti- mum success in the significant ‘Nation Building’ mission.
