Every year, on August 15, we come together as one nation to celebrate the festival of freedom. This year marks 78 years since India gained independence.

In his first Independence Day speech in 1947, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru said, “At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom… The ambition of the greatest man of our generation has been to wipe every tear from every eye." He reminded us that our mission must be to bring freedom and opportunity to every citizen—especially the common man, the farmer, and the worker—and to build a prosperous, democratic, and progressive India.

We can take pride in how far we have come in these decades, but as a nation, we must also accept that much remains to be achieved. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has set before us an ambitious goal for the centenary of our Independence: the vision of Viksit Bharat—a fully developed India by 2047. This, he has said, must be the shared mission of every Indian in the Amrit Kaal—the 25-year period we have entered.

A Sanskrit subhashita teaches us: उद्यमेन हि सिध्यन्ति कार्याणि न मनोरथैः। न हि सुप्तस्य सिंहस्य प्रविशन्ति मुखे मृगाः।।

“Udyamena hi sidhyanti karyani na manorathaih; na hi suptasya simhasya pravishanti mukhe mrigah" — our goals are not reached by wishes alone, but through effort, perseverance, and discipline. Just as countless........

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