Page 8 - The Indian EYE 081922

The Indian Eye
OPINION - INDEPENDENCE DAY SPECIAL AUGUST 19, 2022 8

India’s Impressive March Towards

Aatmanirbharta

AMBASSADOR (DR.) MOHAN KUMAR

t was in May 2020 that Indian
Prime Minister Modi made a
Iclarion call for a Bharat that was
“Aatmanirbhar”. It is important to
clarify what this meant and what it
did not. While a rough translation of
the word is no doubt “self-reliant”, it
is nevertheless not the kind of self-re-
liance that India arguably believed
and practiced in the early years of its
independence up until the seventies
and eighties. It is easy to state what
it is not. It is certainly not autarchy; it
is certainly not inward-looking; and it
is most certainly not stopping imports Chief of the Army Staff, General Manoj Pande recently reviewed the security situation along
and making every product at home. It the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China (ANI)
may be more prudent to think of “Aat-
manirbharta” as Self-Reliance 2.0.
In this framework of Self-Reli-
ance 2.0, the PM clarified that rather
than be self-centred, India will open up
even more to the world outside, guid-
ed by its motto: Vasudhaiva Kutum- World’s highest railway bridge is decorated with the National flags during its inauguration as part of the Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav cele-
bakam, or our Earth is just one family. brations to mark the 75 years of India’s Independence, over the Chenab river, in Reasi on Saturday. (ANI Photo)
PM Modi went on to say that
Aatmanirbharta will stand on five centre-state cooperation and not to 2021, as many as 142 countries in the widely popular in India. To under-
pillars: economy, infrastructure, tech- mention building awareness among world expressed interest in adopting stand the significance of UPI, con-
nology, demography and demand. citizens and getting their participa- this platform. Again, this is Aatman- sider this: India accounted for the
PM explained the raison d’être of tion willingly in this exercise. Indeed, irbharta at work. largest number of worldwide digital
Aatmanirbharta by saying that this the WHO and others have praised The war in Ukraine has had a transactions in 2021 at a whopping
should prepare India for participation India and the best practices here will profound impact not just in Europe, 48 billion, a number that is nearly
in global supply chains and that this is be emulated the world over. Proving but more importantly for develop- three times bigger than China’s (18
a battle India cannot afford to lose. that Self-Reliance 2.0 is not just for ing and least-developed countries. billion) and is at least six times bigger
There is little doubt that the glob- Indians, India also exported a large Specifically, the war has impacted than the transactions of US, Canada,
al pandemic i.e. COVID-19, played number of vaccines and PPE coun- food, energy and commodity prices UK, France and Germany combined.
a significant role in India’s push for tries all over the world. The latest sta- adversely. Wheat shortage in partic- Voices in the US are saying that we
Self-Reliance 2.0. Take the simple tistics from the MEA website talks of ular, is expected to affect Africa and must learn from India which is leap-
example of PPE (Personal Protective 240 million (approx) vaccines which the Middle-East quite significantly. frogging into the future. Again, Aat-
Equipment) and N-95 masks. At the have been delivered to 101 countries, At a time like this, it is comforting manirbharta at work.
beginning of the pandemic, India was of which there are developed, devel- to know that India’s position when The above is not to suggest that
not making any N-95 masks. Today, oping and least-developed countries. it comes to food security for its huge everything is rosy. India faces mon-
India manufactures at least 200,000 The story of India being the pharma- population is satisfactory. This is yet umental challenges with regard to
N-95 masks a day, if not more. Even cy of the world is too well known to another manifestation of Self-Reli- eradication of poverty, job creation
more impressive is India’s own record bear any repetition here. All of this is ance 2.0. Indeed, not only was India and investment in health/education/
of vaccinating its mammoth popula- real “aatmanirbharta” at work. able to give away food-grains and len- skills of its vast population. But the
tion. In 2020 when COVID emerged, The COWIN platform that In- tils to 800 million of its citizens as part lessons are clear: India is sui gener-
almost no one believed India could dia used for distributing vaccines of the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan is and it is only an “Indian” model
ever fully vaccinate its population and to its mammoth population was re- Yojana, India was also able to carry that will work for India and Indians.
that such an exercise would take years markable. COWIN is essentially a out modest exports of food-grains to Hence, the capital importance of
and years. Yet, in July 2022, about 18 cloud-based IT solution for planning, low income countries that needed it. Aatmanirbharta. After all, as we have
months the first vaccination began, implementing, monitoring and eval- Again, Aatmanirbharta at work. seen above, ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’ is
India completed 2 billion doses of uating COVID vaccination in India. Yet another amazing success sto- not just good for India but also for the
vaccines for its citizens. The story of By July 2021, India decided to make ry of Aatmanirbharta is the case of world at large.
how this was achieved is worthy of a this open platform available to all Unified Payments Interface (UPI) Ambassador (Dr.) Mohan Kumar is a
case study which will cover vital issues countries for their use. In the COW- which is a government-backed cen- former Indian Ambassador and a full
such as public-private partnership, IN global conclave organized in July tralized digital payment gateway, time academic now

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