It was in May 2020 that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a call for a Bharat that was “Aatmanirbhar”. It is important to clarify what this meant and what it did not mean. While a crude translation of the word is undoubtedly “self-sufficient”, it is nevertheless not the kind of self-reliance that India believed in and practiced in the early years of its independence until the 1970s and 1980s. It is easy to say what it is not. It is certainly not autarky; it is certainly not introspective; and it is certainly not halting imports and making all products in-house. It might be more prudent to think of “Aatmanirbharta” as Self-Reliance 2.0.
In this framework of Self-Reliance 2.0, the Prime Minister clarified that instead of being self-centered, India will open up even more to the outside world, guided by its motto: Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam, or our Earth is just a family. Prime Minister Modi went on to say that Aatmanirbharta will rest on five pillars: economy, infrastructure, technology, demography and demand. The prime minister explained Aatmanirbharta’s raison d’être, saying that this should prepare India for participation in global supply chains and that this is a battle India cannot lose.
There is little doubt that the global pandemic, namely Covid-19, has played a significant role in India’s push towards Self-Reliance 2.0. See the simple example of PPE (personal protective equipment) and N-95 masks. At the beginning of the pandemic, India did not manufacture any N-95 masks. Today, India manufactures at least 200,000 N-95 masks a day, if not more. Even more impressive is India’s own record of vaccinating its massive population. In 2020, when Covid emerged, almost no one believed that India could fully vaccinate its population and that this exercise would take years and years. However, in July 2022, about 18 months after the start of the first vaccination, India completed 2 billion doses of vaccines for its citizens. The story of how this was achieved is worthy of a case study that will address vital issues such as public-private partnership, center-state cooperation and not to mention citizen awareness and voluntary participation in this exercise.
Indeed, the World Health Organization (WHO) and others have praised India, and best practices here will be emulated around the world. Proving that Self Reliance 2.0 is not just for Indians, India has also exported a large number of vaccines and PPE around the world. The latest statistics from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MEA) website speak of 240 million (approximately) vaccines that have been delivered to 101 countries, of which there are developed, developing and least developed countries. India’s history as the world’s pharmacy is too well known to be repeated here. All this is a real “aatmanirbharta” in action.
The Cowin platform that India used to distribute vaccines to its population was remarkable. Cowin is essentially a cloud-based IT solution for planning, implementing, monitoring and evaluating Covid vaccination in India. In July 2021, India decided to make this platform open to all countries for use. At the Cowin global conclave organized in July 2021, 142 countries expressed interest in adopting this platform. Again, this is Aatmanirbharta in action.
The Ukrainian War had a profound impact not only on Europe, but also on developing and less developed countries. Specifically, the war negatively impacted food, energy and commodity prices. Wheat shortages in particular are expected to affect Africa and the Middle East quite significantly. At a time like this, it is comforting to know that India’s position on food security for its huge population is satisfactory. This is yet another manifestation of Self-Reliance 2.0. In fact, not only was India able to donate grain and lentils to 800 million of its citizens as part of the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana, but it was also able to carry out modest grain exports to low-income countries that needed it. Once again, Aatmanirbharta in action.
Another amazing Aatmanirbharta success story is the case of Unified Payments Interface (UPI), which is a government-backed centralized digital payment gateway that is widely popular in India. To understand the significance of the UPI, consider the following: India accounted for the highest number of digital transactions worldwide in 2021, with a staggering 48 billion, a figure nearly three times that of China (18 billion) and at least six times larger than the US, Canada, UK, France and Germany transactions combined. Voices in the US are saying that we must learn from India, which is leaping into the future. Once again, Aatmanirbharta in action.
The above is not to suggest that everything is rosy. India faces monumental challenges in terms of eradicating poverty, creating jobs and investing in the health/education/skills of its vast population. But the lessons are clear: India is sui generis and is just an “Indian” model that will work for India and Indians. Hence the capital importance of Aatmanirbharta. After all, as we saw above, ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’ is not only good for India but also for the world at large.
