Viksit Bharat 2047 vision focuses on the change in making India a developed country within a centenary year after independence, with all-inclusive economic development, technological development and development of the human capital. Universities serve a crucial purpose in this change by initiating innovations, skills, the ability to conduct research and societal consciousness among the younger generation. Research has shown that there are over 45,000 colleges and over 1,100 universities around the country in India that are currently contributing to the growth of higher education in the country, with a large number of them being located in rural and semi-urban areas, thus promoting the idea of balanced regional development and equal access to education opportunities. The current research indicates that over 60 per cent of the colleges in India are located in rural and semi-urban settings, showing that they can help in the local economic and social transformation that the Viksit Bharat 2047 mission has proposed. The report is founded on secondary data resources that were acquired through educational surveys, government reports, scholarly journals, and policy reports. In the analysis, the roles played by colleges in developing skills, contributing to the community, digital transformation, and sustainable development practices are examined. The authors conclude that greater investments in infrastructure of higher education, digital connectivity, research and innovation in institutions in the rural areas will go a long way in improving the pace with which India will become a developed country by the year 2047.
Shitole et al. (2026) studied this question.