Governance
Context: Recently, the Prime Minister emphasised the importance of promoting indigenous products and self-reliance.
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:
Aatmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyaan:
Aatmanirbhar 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 Atama Nirbhar Bharat –
- Economy,
- Infrastructure,
- System,
- Vibrant Demography and
- Demand
Finance Minister has announced 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.
Aatmanirbhar 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.
Aatmanirbhar 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.
Thus, 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.
Additional Information:
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 Aparigraha:
- Aparigraha or Non-possession is a philosophy that holds that no one or anything possesses anything.
- in Jainism, aparigraha is the virtue of non-possessiveness, non-grasping or non-greediness.
- Aparigraha is not only renunciation but also controlling all kinds of attachments.
- This particular iteration of aparigraha is distinct because it is a component of Gandhiji’s active non-violent resistance to social problems permeating India.
Source: Indian Express
