{"id":136100,"date":"2023-08-14T11:30:30","date_gmt":"2023-08-14T08:30:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/timeskuwait.com\/news\/?p=136100"},"modified":"2023-08-14T11:31:12","modified_gmt":"2023-08-14T08:31:12","slug":"indias-march-towards-aatmanirbharta-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timeskuwait.com\/news\/indias-march-towards-aatmanirbharta-2\/","title":{"rendered":"India\u2019s March Towards Aatmanirbharta"},"content":{"rendered":"

Amb. Dr. Mohan Kumar<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

It was in May 2020 that Indian Prime Minister Modi made a clarion call for a Bharat that was \u2018Aatmanirbhar\u2019. It is important to clarify what this meant and what it did not. While a rough translation of the word is no doubt \u2018self-reliant\u2019, it is nevertheless not the kind of self-reliance that India arguably believed and practiced in the early years of its independence up until the seventies and eighties. It is easy to state what it is not. It is certainly not autarky; it is certainly not inward-looking; and it is most certainly not stopping imports and making every product at home. It may be more prudent to think of \u2018Aatmanirbharta\u2019 as Self-Reliance 2.0.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>In this framework of Self-Reliance 2.0, the PM clarified that rather than be self-centred, India will open up even more to the world outside, guided by its motto: Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam, or our Earth is just one family. PM Modi went on to say that Aatmanirbharta will stand on five pillars: economy, infrastructure, technology, demography and demand. PM explained the raison d\u2019\u00eatre of Aatmanirbharta by saying that this should prepare India for participation in global supply chains and that this is a battle India cannot afford to lose.<\/p>\n

There is little doubt that the global COVID-19 pandemic played a significant role in India\u2019s push for Self-Reliance 2.0. For example, take India\u2019s impressive record of vaccinating its mammoth population. In 2020 when COVID emerged, almost no one believed India could ever fully vaccinate its population and that such an exercise would take years.<\/p>\n

Yet, in July 2022, about 18 months after the first vaccination began, India completed 2 billion doses of vaccines for its citizens. The story of how this was achieved is worthy of a case study which will cover vital issues such as public-private partnership and centre-state cooperation, as well as, building awareness among citizens and getting their participation willingly in this exercise.<\/p>\n

Indeed, the WHO and others have praised India and the best practices here will be emulated the world over. Proving that Self-Reliance 2.0 is not just for Indians, India also exported a large number of vaccines and PPE countries all over the world. The latest statistics from the MEA website talks of about 240 million vaccines which have been delivered to 101 countries, of which there are developed, developing and least-developed countries. All of this is real \u2018Aatmanirbharta\u2019 at work.<\/p>\n

The COWIN platform India used for distributing vaccines to its mammoth population was remarkable. COWIN is essentially a cloud-based IT solution for planning, implementing, monitoring and evaluating COVID vaccination in India. By July 2021, India decided to make this open platform available to all countries for their use. At the COWIN global conclave organized in July 2021, as many as 142 countries expressed interest in adopting this platform. Again, this is Aatmanirbharta at work.<\/p>\n

The war in Ukraine has had a profound impact on developing and least-developed countries, more specifically, it has adversely impacted food, energy and commodity prices. At a time like this, it is comforting to know that India\u2019s position when it comes to food security for its huge population is satisfactory. This is yet another manifestation of Self-Reliance 2.0. Indeed, not only was India able to give away food-grains and lentils to 800 million of its citizens as part of the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana, India was also able to carry out modest exports of food-grains to low income countries that needed it. Again, Aatmanirbharta at work.<\/p>\n

Yet another amazing success story of Aatmanirbharta is the case of Unified Payments Interface (UPI) which is a government-backed centralized digital payment gateway, widely popular in India. To understand the significance of UPI, consider this: India accounted for the largest number of worldwide digital transactions in 2021 at a whopping 48 billion, a number that is nearly three times bigger than China\u2019s (18 billion) and is at least six times bigger than the transactions of US, Canada, UK, France and Germany combined. Voices in the US are saying that we must learn from India which is leapfrogging into the future. Again, Aatmanirbharta at work.<\/p>\n

The above is not to suggest that everything is rosy. India faces monumental challenges with regard to eradication of poverty, job creation and investment in health\/education\/skills of its vast population. But the lessons are clear: India is sui generis in its \u2018Aatmanirbharata\u2019; it is not just an \u2018Indian\u2019 model that will work for India and Indians, \u2018Aatmanirbhar Bharat\u2019 is good for India, as well as for the world at large.<\/p>\n

\n

[Ambassador (Dr.) Mohan Kumar is a former Indian Ambassador<\/em>
\nand a full time academic now.]<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Amb. Dr. Mohan Kumar It was in May 2020 that Indian Prime Minister Modi made a clarion call for a Bharat that was \u2018Aatmanirbhar\u2019. It is important to clarify what this meant and what it did not. While a rough translation of the word is no doubt \u2018self-reliant\u2019, it is nevertheless not the kind of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":136101,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1126],"tags":[6369,6364,127],"class_list":["post-136100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-india-independence-day","tag-aatmanirbhar","tag-independence-day-of-india","tag-india"],"yoast_head":"\nIndia\u2019s March Towards Aatmanirbharta - TimesKuwait<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/timeskuwait.com\/news\/indias-march-towards-aatmanirbharta-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"India\u2019s March Towards Aatmanirbharta - TimesKuwait\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Amb. Dr. Mohan Kumar It was in May 2020 that Indian Prime Minister Modi made a clarion call for a Bharat that was \u2018Aatmanirbhar\u2019. It is important to clarify what this meant and what it did not. 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