ifstream.open() not opening file for reading and writing

i am trying to open file for read/write purpose. Below code is not working ? can anyone explain me where i m doing wrong?

#include <iostream>
#include <fstream>

int main()
{
    using namespace std;
    ifstream file;
    file.open("program.txt");

    if (!file)
    {
        cout << "failure";
    }
    return 0;

}

the output of above program is "failure".
but why?
isn't it supposed to open file sucessfully?