Now turn India Inside out

The Economic Times     1st December 2020     Save    

Context: The economic and political churning for new world order is well and truly afoot, opening more doors of opportunity for India.

Steps to be taken for resounding economic growth:

  • Clearly articulated Economic Strategy: Well-defined trade and economic policy to engage with the world would lead to shifting from just ‘self-reliance’ to ‘Make in India for the World’.
    • Need to turn convergence of new opportunities into gains: like Japan did after World War 2 and China did after the Cold War, by reforming internally and externally.
    • Bad economic decisions taken for strategic reasons must be rejected: with some extremely rare and limited exceptions.
  • Need to move away from a tariff-based approach: to one centred on quality and standards.
    • Harmonize domestic and global standards to help integration with the global supply chains.
  • Technological transformation: For e.g. India realized that climate change was about technology transformation in the long run, not just emission cuts.
  • Utilizing huge domestic market: Incentivizing companies to set up production facilities here, will help India to compete with countries diversifying their supply chains from China.
  • Capitalize on Political Acceptability:
    • United Arab Emirates(UAE) allowed Indian workers back into their economy while curbing other countries.
    • The new power equations in the West Asian region — Israel, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, also benefit India.
    • Chinese military aggression in Ladakh has strengthened this political logic across global capital.

Conclusion: The challenge now is to leverage this broader political acceptability globally for an economic purpose.