Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, speaking on the 60th anniversary of independence from British rule, said the country needed to work harder to fight poverty, ignorance and disease despite fast economic growth.
"India cannot become a nation with islands of high growth and vast areas untouched by development, where the benefits of growth accrue only to a few," he said today from the ramparts of New Delhi's historic Red Fort behind a bulletproof glass screen.
"We have moved forward in the many battles against poverty, ignorance and disease. But can we say we have won the war?"
India is one of the world's fastest growing economies, but has some of the sharpest inequalities in the world, with hundreds of millions of poor surviving on a fraction of a dollar a day.
Sharpshooters were stationed on nearby buildings as Singh spoke, while troops and armed police guarded roads and key buildings around the country on a day traditionally marked by violent attacks by separatist militants or Maoist rebels.
Earlier, Singh laid wreaths at memorials commemorating the leader of India's freedom movement Mahatma Gandhi, as well as its first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and his daughter, assassinated former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
The prime minister, dressed in his trademark light blue turban, then proceeded to the Mughal-era fort where he unfurled the national flag to a 21-gun salute
Singh promised to invest in agriculture, which still employs more than half of India's population, and in education, in a country where a third of the population remains illiterate.
He also vowed renewed efforts to promote industrialisation and build "first-rate infrastructure".
"The problem of malnutrition is a national shame," he added. "I appeal to the nation to resolve and work hard to eradicate malnutrition within five years."
Despite growth rates of around eight percent in recent years, around 46 percent of children under three are undernourished, UNICEF says, a higher rate than in sub-Saharan Africa.
"We are a young nation," he said. "Once unleashed, the energy of our youth will drive India onto a new growth path."
"However we must not be overconfident. We have a long march ahead. We need at least a decade of hard work and of sustained growth to realise our dreams."