Yes, India can

Context: The push for a self-confident Bharat is needed more than a self-reliant one.

Benefits of the concept of an Atma Vishwasi Bharat (AVB) or self-confident Bharat

• Works well with “aspiring India”: It helps those sections of a society eager to claw their way up the social status and income ladder. 
• Helps pre-liberalisation Indians: who lack intrinsic belief in themselves; At present, pre-liberalisation Indians holds defensive justification of praising heritage.
• Boosts “Make in India”: It creates a belief that we can get our small share of the pie, and working towards it by setting our targets, devising our strategy. (India being the pharma factory of the world!)
• Would encourage to invest in creating real global brands.
• Helps capture domestic demand: It will encourage banks to provide loans to Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) without collateral and low pricing. (instead of depending on Foreign Direct Investments).
  • SMEs would force banks to find more appropriate methods to credit appraise them.
• Increased market access: to small producers; AVB would celebrate that we have Indianised Amazon
• Raps Multi-National Companies for violation of rules.
• Would use globalisation for our progress.

Challenge to AVB:

• Objections from elites and political parties: As the AVB will decrease the power distance between the masses and the classes and may jeopardise their hard-earned positions on the global stage.

Way forward:

• Create AVB business schools that will institute a new body of management experience and research emanating from India that will make a note on the world.
  • Not focusing on doing less relevant research that Western peer-reviewed journals will publish.

Conclusion: AVB will solve India’s problems with “next practice” (new and better, leading the world) not “best practice” and will not dismiss the considerable Indian innovation in this direction as jugaad until foreigners bless it.