Rekha Mahajan
On 12th of May 2020 PM Narendra Modi put forward the idea of ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ or Self- reliant India in front of the entire nation. This was the starting of a nationwide movement once again after the Swadeshi movement in the 20th century by Mahatma Gandhi to support local businesses and boycott goods of the enemy (China this time).
Economy, infrastructure, technology, vibrant demography and demand are the five pillars of Atmanirbhar Bharat Mr Modi asked the nation of 1.3 billion people diligently to be vocal for local. The concept of Self-Reliant India is brought up during the times of economic slowdown with the purpose to make Indian Economy stronger and to promote local products in India as well as all over the world.The Indian culture and tradition have always backed the concept of being self-reliant. The mission of this Abhiyan was explained by our Prime Minister as not being self-centric but being self sufficient so that it can bring happiness, co-operation and peace of the world.
In his vision he not only aims to promote local products but also suggests everyone to improve quality, modernization of the supply chain and providing best products. He emphasized on inner strength and self-belief for making this Abhiyan successful and every Indian citizen has to play a crucial role in this. The Prime Minister urged each one of us to promote local products and use Indian products more and more. We use quite a lot of foreign products starting from our daily use to our leisure activities. The Prime Minister also stated in his speech that all famous global products have started from their local business and when local people started using them more, promoting them, proud of them, they became multi-national products.
Similarly, we too can promote our products to not only at the national level but also at the world level. The time has come for us to make our nation and its every citizen independent. When PM urged everyone to buy and promote Khadi, he feels very proud to see the revenue growth and its reach to the new levels in a very short span of time. He is hopeful too now that when we will not only buy local products but also advertise them at the global level, it will be truly called a ‘Local for Vocal’. Our responsibility now lies on us to make the 21st century – the century of India.
It is also important to understand that the Abhiyan does not suggest to cut off relations from global platform and trade only with local products, the fundamental concept of this Abhiyan is to become not only self-sufficient but also to promote local businesses and to show off and feel proud about what invaluable assets we possess and by nourishing local manufacturers, supply chain and with diversification in services and products the Abhiyan can be made a successful mission.
The Government announced an economic stimulus package of Rs 20 lakh crore and big-bang systemic reforms under the Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan (self-reliant India).
The intended objective of this plan is two-fold.
First, interim measures such as liquidity infusion and direct cash transfers for the poor will work as shock absorbers for those in acute stress.
The second, long-term reforms in growth-critical sectors is to make them globally competitive and attractive.
Together, these steps may revive the economic activity, impacted by Covid-19 pandemic and create new opportunities for growth in sectors like agriculture, micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), power, coal and mining, defence and aviation,etc
Prime Minister in his appeal for Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan, announced an economic package of Rs. 20 lakh crore which comes to 10% of the GDP of our country which is one of the largest relief packages in the world. In order to make this plan successful, land, labour, liquidity and laws all have been specifically considered under this package. The package will be used for cottage industry, home industry, small-scale industry, MSME, laborers, farmers, middle-class people and those Indian industries which are working to boost our economy dedicatedly.
Rs. 1.70 Lakh Crore relief package under Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana for the poor to help them fight the battle against Corona Virus,Insurance cover of Rs 50 Lakh per health worker,Free food grains is being provided to 800 million people.,
20 crore women Jan Dhan account holders get Rs 500 per month for 3 months
Gas cylinders, free of cost, provided to 8 crore poor families for the 3 months.
India has faced the COVID-19 situation with a great spirit of self-reliance.
Making the country self reliant in all spheres- from manufacturing to supplying will help the country to reduce its dependence on imports and may also give a boost to exports.
Efforts are being made to make the country a self-sufficient India:
From zero production of Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) before March 2020, India today has created a capacity of producing 4.5 lakh PPE kits daily.
Limiting imports of weapons and increasing the limit of foreign direct investment in defence from 49% to 74% will give a much-needed boost to the production in the Ordnance Factory Board, while reducing India’s huge defence import bill.
In Coming days iPhone 11and the latest and most affordable iPhone SE (2020) will also be manufactured in India. This would help Apple avoid an import duty of 20%, thereby reducing costs.
Ministry of Defence has also approved Rs 2,580 crore contract for indigenous manufacturing of multi barrel rocket launchers for the Indian Army.
The New Education Policy (NEP )will prepare the youth of the nation on both knowledge and skill as per the needs of the future.The Policy focuses on learning instead of studying and moves ahead of curriculum, emphasizing on critical thinking.Skilling our youth is key to build Atmanirbhar Bharat. With vocational exposure right from early age, our youth will get better prepared for future.
Our youth’s participation in the global job market and employ-ability in India will increase with practical learning.
Foreign investment in defense production was not allowed for a long time.This new initiative started in the Government of the revered Atal ji.Further reforms have been made in Modi Government, now for the first time FDI up to 74% is coming automatically in this sector.
Giving boost to the local toy industry as mentioned in PM’s Mann Ki baat also a step towards AtmaNirbhar Bharat .For this country will have to work together to take it forward.
PM Swanidhi scheme providing financial support to street vendors affected by Corona crisis. Under this, loans up to Rs 10,000 will be made available to more than 50 lakh street vendors.So far, over 1.74 lakh loans worth Rs 1,73.52 crore have been approved .A great move to make Street Vendors Aatmanirbhar
After PM ‘s appeal to the nation in last Mann Ki Baat to use indigenous apps there has been a remarkable spurt in downloads of such apps. These are just a handful, there are a lot of measures planned by the Government for the project Atmanirbhar Bharat, However, there are several challenges that are needed to be addressed in order to fulfill the vision of this plan.Collective efforts are required to achieve this mission and fulfill the dream of our visionary PM to make India Atmanirbhar.
(The author is Secretary BJP J&K UT)
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