“By the end of this very year, a Made-in-India chip, built in India by the people of India, will arrive in the market." That single line from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 12th Independence Day address today captures the audacity of India’s new horizon.

Eleven years ago, his first Red Fort speech dwelled on toilets, sanitation and the shame of open defecation; he pleaded with MPs and companies to help build school toilets so daughters wouldn’t drop out. That was what India of 2014 needed – fixing basics and restoring dignity.

A task which should have been completed in the first few decades of Independence itself but needed a Narendra Modi 70 years later to mainstream the topics, build a mass movement and then deliver.

Fast forward just 11 years and today’s India is gearing up to build its own semiconductors, homegrown AI platforms, indigenous jet engines and an Iron Dome-like Sudarshan Chakra — because all the necessary basics have not just been painstakingly built but also delivered.

Consider the new aspirational promises that punctuated Modi’s 103-minute address.

First, semiconductors, mission mode, time-bound. Modi didn’t speak of a distant aspiration; he set a deadline: a Made-in-India chip this year. After “losing 50–60 years" to missed chances, India under Modi has “freed ourselves from this burden" and moved into execution gear. This is not techno-jingoism; it’s strategic sovereignty. Chips are the arteries of the modern economy – phones, cars, power grids, missiles. If India can design and ship credible nodes at scale, it will de-risk supply chains, lift manufacturing GVA, and anchor deep R&D jobs at home. The choice of Red Fort for this pledge wasn’t mere symbolism; it was a sovereign statement.

Second, a “double Diwali" through next-generation GST reforms. “We are bringing next-generation GST reforms. This will reduce the tax burden across the country," the PM said, explicitly signalling that daily-use items will get cheaper and relief will flow........

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