Economy
Nirmala Sitharaman: Atmanirbharta Means Ramping Up Domestic Production, Not Stopping Imports
- In an exclusive interview with Swarajya, when Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman was asked to define what 'Atmanirbharta' means, here is what she said.
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman (Twitter)
What ultimately is Atmanirbharta? Is it import substitution, or a limited period protection to Indian industry, or an attempt to build global scales in specific product lines by incentivising investment and temporary protection?
It is closer to the third category you just described. The Indian economy, in the last decade or so, has become (import-oriented) such that whatever can be easily obtained from outside we obtain; what can be cheap outside we obtain; and whatever (import) is inevitable, because we don’t have the technology, we obtain.
This (attitude) has gradually made us dependent on one source (ie, China). It has eroded the foundational industries that we had, like production of APIs (active pharmaceutical ingredients) for the manufacture of bulk drugs.
Atmanirbharta means that which we can produce we should produce and not depend on imports. That where we (already) had the ability to produce, we should ramp up capacity. And that which we produced (in the past), and where we lost due to predatory pricing or whatever, should be brought back. It does not mean stopping imports of items which we just simply don’t have the capacity to produce.
You can read the full interview here.
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