New Delhi, Aug. 15 -- When the world awoke on 15 August 1947, it found a new independent nation that held out hope for all colonially exploited countries, became an enduring inspiration for the democratic ideal and succeeded remarkably in uniting a diverse population-divided by religion, caste and language-into a coherent political union.

Impoverished by colonial surplus extraction, the Indian landmass had been reduced from one of the richest places on earth to one of the poorest. India's political leadership had to craft an economic policy informed by the nation's capital scarcity, an abundance of untrained labour and widespread incidence of crushing poverty.

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