During the Corona period there has been a big change in the thinking of policy makers in Bharat and the world. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said that the biggest lesson the country has learnt in this corona crisis is that we have to become self-reliant. To fulfill the national resolve, efforts will have to be made at all levels. PM said that country can no longer remain an exporter of raw materials and importer of finished goods. To make the country capable to produce for the world, we need to make all out efforts.
While China is facing the food crisis, Bharat has a surplus agricultural Production
Some people believe that in this era of globalisation our efforts to become self-reliant can prove to be regressive and suicidal. Such people fail to appreciate that resolve to self reliance is not about stopping imports from China or elsewhere altogether, but to gradually reduce dependence on imports not just from China but any other country.
Not a Day-dreaming
Several critics try to reject the idea of self reliance on two counts: First they term this approach to be impractical due to huge dependence on other countries, especially China; and argue that this kind of policy may cost heavily due to closure of industries dependent on components and raw material coming from China and/or due to increase in cost, as we will have to opt for costlier alternatives. Second, they argue that this kind of approach to self reliance will push us back to Nehruvian days of protectionism meaning thereby high cost and inefficient industries. This may make the industry uncompetitive. The conclusion they draw with their arguments is that under the circumstances self reliance is impossible without hurting the economy.
However, they fail to appreciate that policy of self-reliance by encouraging production in the country cannot be equated with protectionism. It is of course true that, for new industries to flourish, the import duty on goods coming from abroad will have to be increased a bit; to discourage dumping, anti-dumping duties and in some cases safeguard duties may also be needed; standards are also needed to prevent inferior foreign goods, and alongside a host of other non tariff barriers may be needed to be imposed. Those who call these measures as protectionist must understand that US imposes more than 6500 non-tariff barriers, China imposes more than 3,500 such barriers, while India imposes only nearly 350 such barriers. Whereas, WTO rules allow India to have an average import duty of up to 40 percent, our average import duty is less than even 10 percent which is increased import duties on some items including electronics, mobile phones, consumer goods, etc. from 10 percent to 20 percent and this helped reducing imports significantly. In the last 2 years between 2017-18 and 2019-20, India’s trade deficit with China has come down from $ 63.2 billion to $ 48.6 billion.
Testimony during the Testing Time
When we look around, Indian ethos is entirely distinct from the world. No doubt, profit motive is there, in every business, however, that is not everything. Country has witnessed that how our small industry and even individuals came forward and made face masks and PPE kits when they were in short supply; China was trying to profiteer from our helplessness. Similarly many labs came forward to address the problem of shortage of testing facilities and today we not only have sufficient facility of testing COVID19, cost of testing has also come down drastically. When country and the world was witnessing a shortage of ventilators, one Company Skanray Technologies, Mysuru, which was producing 5000 ventilators in a month, took the hill task of helping companies to fulfill the requirements of the country, by generously sharing the design of their ventilator, with other manufacturers and made it possible to manufacture 60,000 ventilators in the country in a short span of two months; and now country is exporting ventilators in huge quantity and is fulfilling the world’s demand.
Hard work of our farmers instills confidence in the countrymen that we will never face shortage of food items. During Corona period, we see many examples of how, many employers continued with payment to their workers despite lock down. We need to understand that; lot of damage has been caused by the blind obsession towards globalisation, in the yesteryears, impacting domestic production and employment and has led to excessive dependence on other countries, especially China.
Time has now come to give encouragement to domestic efforts to increase production indigenously. These efforts are becoming visible. For increasing production of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), a production linked incentives (PLI) package of more than rupees 11 thousand crores has been rolled out. For electronics and mobile phones PLI package of more than rupees 42 thousand crores has been given. Nation has witnessed, how our industry both big and small, responded to the Corona challenge by producing PPE kits, N95 masks, ventilators and many other equipments. We supplied HCQ tablets to the world. Pharma industry is already geared to produce Corona vaccine, once it gets regulatory green signal.
Under these circumstances, government’s budgetary push is important but not sufficient. We need to change the mindset of the bureaucracy, regulatory bodies, government’s machinery, judiciary and media. We need to get rid of rules and regulations designed to foster socialist system. We need to allow our young entrepreneurs (start ups) to freely work to flourish their new ideas to bring in new technology and generate wealth. Modi government’s push to start ups, stand up needs to be taken to the next level. Dream of ‘Make in India’ has to be realized by encouraging Indian youth entrepreneurs. We know that India missed the bus of first, second and third industrial revolutions. It’s a time for fourth industrial revolution, which is digital revolution. Given huge size of Indian economy and huge market opportunities, global giants are trying to exploit the potentials in their favour. Many people think that we are undergoing a threat of digital colonisation also. We need to seize this opportunity and make our country Atmanirbhar digitally as well. Corona, though came as a pandemic, a threat and a challenge; our country has resolved to convert the same into an opportunity. Let’s all work together towards the same and take our country out of foreign economic dominance, unemployment, poverty, deprivation and stigma of underdevelopment.
(The author is an Associate Professor of Economic, PGDAV College, University of Delhi and national co-convener Swadeshi Jagran Manch)
