How can India become Self-Reliant?

During the beginning of the lockdown phase I, our hon’ble Prime Minister Narendra Modi, gave impetus to the need for India to become self-reliant in terms of manufacturing goods in-house, leading to a counter trade deficit and an increase in employment generation. The GOI is going to identify 10 such sectors where there is a need to start greater production. Few have been identified so far, viz. 

• Capital Goods and Machinery

• Mobile Phones and Electronics

• Gems and Jewellery

• Textiles and Garments

• Pharmaceuticals

• Furniture

• Footwear

• Air conditioners

What is the basic plan behind the implementation?

The GOI is planning to give a push to this idea by achieving the following items:

• Import Substitution by enhanced Domestic Manufacturing

• By increasing the Indian exports 

• 5I s

What is already in Place?

In order to bring the domestic market to the forefront, the government has already been looking into prospective areas that could improve our exports and generate employment opportunities. These are some of the initiatives that the GOI has taken up till now:

• Changing the definition of the MSME sector: The GOI has defined both the manufacturing and service industries on the basis of Investment and turnover (Earlier, only Investment was counted). With the increased limits, many industries have come under the ambit of the Atma Nirbhar Bharat Package.

• The Centre has entrusted the TRIFED (Tribal Cooperative Marketing Development Federation of India) with framing programmes for the states under the central programme "Livelihood with Safety" for the migrant labourers who have been displaced because of the COVID-19 outbreak. Tribal startups will be encouraged by forming working groups and SHGS.

• The Centre will allow private firms to use the infrastructure and facilities of the ISRO, and frame a national geospatial policy for the private firms to use the remote sensing data of the satellites to build applications.

• Rs. 50,000 crore scheme for the electronics sector in the form of schemes like Production Linked Incentive Scheme(PLI), Scheme for Manufacturing of Electronic Components and Semi-Conductors(SPECS) and Modifying Electronics Manufacturing Clusters(EMC 2.0).

What needs to be looked into?

• Liquidity injection into the leather and footwear industry. There is a very good chance that the UK and European footwear industries will shift to India. India is one of the largest footwear exporters, accounting for $5.5 to $6 billion, employing ~ 4 million people.

• Giving a push to the manufacture of Man-Made fibres, as India, being the largest producer of cotton(25 per cent of the Global output), has a total textile exports of ~$39 billion out of which only 15% is shared by MMF. Since the heavy taxation on the fibres, the production is stagnant. MMF shares ~72 per cent of global textile consumption, which is certainly a big opportunity to grasp. A fibre-neutral tax policy is in urgent call for.

• Due to the recent cancellation of H1-B visas by the US until December 2020 can be a big hit to the Indian IT Sector. Many industries can be hit as the US government has also asked the Industries there to give almost equal pay to Immigrants as compared to the US nationals. As the cost of hiring Indian professionals in the US will increase, the offshore culture of the IT sector may reduce, leading to job and client losses and a decline in GDP.

Conclusion

Hon’ble Prime Minister Narendra Modi has called for steps to be taken for India to become a self-reliant nation and a global player in the manufacturing market.

He called for the idea of 5Is to be taken into consideration for the formulation of policies and programmes for our benefit, viz. Intent, Inclusion, Investment, Infrastructure and Innovation. India surely has the potential to grow and achieve self-reliance, but in order to do so, we should be thinking in our minds- "How should I contribute?".