India Needs To Focus On New Acquisitions For Defence and Oil Exploration And Not On New Fancy Dams ,Projects or Road/ Infrastructure Development Or Freebies For Next Five Years : Any Further Pauperisation of Middle Class Will Be Suicidal For Economy.
Rajiv Upadhyay 
India, particularly its ruling elite is now caught in its own trap .
It has built its entire credibility from highly visible Roads and infrastructure projects and freebies for poor etc . All good kings like to focus on their legacy as they get old . We saw it with Ratan Tata in his last years where he became more of a super patriotic Indian rather than a shrewd businessman . Atal ji too was very keen to solve Pakistan issue in his life time even by being more than generous with General Musharraf till Sushma Swaraj etc worked hard to dissuade him from being over generous.
Some times desire to become a history man overtakes prudence.
India needs to take a reality check . Our defence has been badly neglected in last twenty years . Our defence budget is misleading due to bulk of it being on salaries and pensions . We are not able to replace our aging assets like fighter planes , have very few submarines , AWACS etc . Iran war has shown another dangerous dimension which former Pakistani ambassador Abdul Basit said in an interview that in any next war we will first bomb Delhi and Mumbai . Like Iran , Pakistan has very little to lose. Right in the beginning it can attack our critical production hubs like Jamnagar refinery . If we buy small nuclear reactors for power , as being discussed now , it will escalate the terrorist threat that will multiply in next decade.
We need missile defence , cyber protection , satellite security , internet cables , pipelines security . Adequate food and fertiliser stocks , strategic oil reserves and ammunition for atl east a three months war .
Huge investment in defence is required on priority .
Similarly Bombay High production is declining . We need to intensify oil exploration in Andaman , Ganga and Brahmputra basin . It too requires huge capital investment . Our shipping fleet needs multiplication not just addition . Possibly new oil/ gas pipelines from Oman may be required .
India cannot afford to make more major investment in roads , rail ,metros airports etc . Subsidies are already hurting economy particularly because they have been funded by ‘ Pauperising the middle class particularly the salary class ‘ . Our economy and private investment is suffering due to lack of investment which has dried up due to decline in demand from middle class . Even net FDI last year was just 550 million dollars as most of the foreign currency went outside on asset acquisition . No industrialist wants to invest in India . Ukraine and Iran war are still uncertain . Next wars say in Taiwan or Greenland could be started .
There is increasing evidence that foreign forces are interfering and are very keen to de stabilise us to make us spend our foreign exchange reserves on imported arms etc . and get a friendly christian nation in north east .Sheikh Hasina’s ouster is a proof of foreign designs.
Under these circumstances , India needs to pause its race for infrastructure or subsidies and focus on defence acquisitions and Oil exploration . Particularly we must curb our desire for immortality by starting Kalpsar dam type super expensive projects or more high speed railway , metros or small airports, nuclear power plants etc . for five years.
