Self-Reliant India

In News

• Recently, the Prime Minister emphasised the importance of promoting indigenous products and self-reliance.

More about the news

• Self-reliance:
  • The significance of promoting indigenous products and self-reliance is for prosperity and by adopting them one can keep India’s traditional art, culture and civilisation alive.
• Jain saint Vijay Vallabh Surishwar:
  • The PM was addressing a gathering to mark the 150th birth anniversary of Jain saint Vijay Vallabh Surishwar.
    • The event was organised by the Union Culture Ministry. 
    • As part of the occasion, a commemorative postage stamp and coin dedicated to Acharya Surishwar was also released.
    • Historical significance:
      • PM said Acharya Surishwar’s insistence on peace and harmony was clearly visible even during the horrors of Partition. 
      • He noted that during the freedom movement Mahatma Gandhi had adopted the path of “aparigraha”, or renunciation, as laid down by the Jain gurus.

About the Self-reliant India

• What is Self-reliance?
  • Self-reliance is the social and economic ability of an individual, a household or a community to meet essential needs (including protection, food, water, shelter, personal safety, health and education) in a sustainable manner and with dignity.
• India’s potential towards self reliance:
  • Labour force:
    • Self reliance depends on improving the income and productivity of a majority of the labour force. 
    • There are two ways to do this. 
      • First, incentivise the farming community to shift from grain-based farming to cash crops, horticulture and livestock products. 
      • Second, shift the labour force from agriculture to manufacturing. 
        • India can only become self-reliant if it uses its best endowment — 900 million people in the working-age population with an average age of 27 — and appropriates its demographic dividend as China did.
  • Global position:
    • India is in a unique position at a time when all other manufacturing giants are ageing sequentially — Japan, EU, the US, and even South Korea and China. 
    • Most of these countries have moved out of low-end labour-intensive manufacturing, and that space is being taken by countries like Bangladesh, Vietnam, Mexico, etc.
  • Research & development:
    • State-funded R&D, including in basic research, by PSUs and research institutions and universities needs to be scaled-up significantly, well above the dismal 1% of GDP currently. 
  • Education:
    • Finally, India’s meagre public expenditure on education needs to be substantially ramped up (as against current trends of privatisation which would only shrink access), including in skill development. 
    • No country has achieved self-reliance without mass quality public education. 

Government’s initiatives towards self reliance 

• Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyaan
  • Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyaan or Self-reliant India campaign is the vision of new India.
  • Aim:
    • The aim is to make the country and its citizens independent and self-reliant in all senses. 
    • There are five pillars of Aatma Nirbhar Bharat – 
      • Economy, 
      • Infrastructure, 
      • System, 
      • Vibrant Demography and 
      • Demand. 
    • Finance Minister has announcd Government Reforms and Enablers across Seven Sectors under Aatmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyaan.
  • The government took several bold reforms such as Supply Chain Reforms for Agriculture, Rational Tax Systems, Simple & Clear Laws, Capable Human Resource and Strong Financial System in this regard.
• Atmanirbhar Bharat Rozgar Yojana:
  • Aim:
    • It aims to boost employment generation and minimise the socio-economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. 
  • Features:
    • Under ABRY, Government of India is crediting for a period of two years both the employees’ share (12% of wages) and employers share’ (12% of wages) of contribution payable or only the employees’ share, depending on employment strength of the EPFO registered establishments. 
• Atmanirbhar Swasth Bharat Yojana
  • Aim: 
    • To strengthen India’s critical healthcare network in both urban and rural areas.
    • Establish an IT-enabled disease surveillance system through a network of laboratories at block, district, regional and national levels.
    • Labs will be connected through the Integrated Health Information Portal.
  • Features:
    • To provide support to 17,788 rural Health and Wellness Centres in 10 ‘high focus’ states and establish 11,024 urban Health and Wellness Centres.
    • It is in addition to the National Health Mission.
    • Exclusive Critical Care Hospital Blocks with over five lakh population.
• Make in India
  • Ministry of Commerce & Industry said that the program, which is aimed at self-sufficiency or being ‘aatmanirbhar’, has substantial accomplishments across 27 sectors, including strategic sectors such as manufacturing and services.
  • Make in India, the flagship program of the Government of India that aspires to 
    • Facilitate investment, 
    • Foster innovation, 
    • Enhance skill development,
    • Build best-in-class manufacturing infrastructure,
    • Protect the intellectual property,
    • Make India digital,
    • Create healthy relationships with various countries,
    • Provide employment opportunities.
  • “Make in India” had three stated objectives:
    • To increase the manufacturing sector’s growth rate to 12-14% per annum;
    • To create 100 million additional manufacturing jobs in the economy by 2022;
    • To ensure that the manufacturing sector’s contribution to GDP is increased to 25% by 2022 (later revised to 2025).
• Startup India
  • Startup India was introduced in 2016 as a call to innovators, entrepreneurs, and thinkers of the nation to lead from the front in driving India’s sustainable growth and create large scale employment opportunities.
  • The entrepreneurial portal had more than 65,000 startups registered.
  • Of which, 40 attained the ‘unicorn’ status recently, bringing the total as of date to 90.

Source: TH