Articles: July 2020

“Atma Nirbhar Bharat Abhiyan”

Atma Nirbhar Bharat Abhiyan or Self- Reliant India Mission is the vision of the Prime Minister of India to make the country, a self-reliant nation. It was first mentioned on 12^th May 2020, when the government had announced an economic package of Rs 20 lakh crore for the people during coronavirus pandemic. It primarily focuses on Economy, Infrastructure, System, Vibrant Demography and Demand. The Government aims to resume the economic activities with abundant caution in 5 phases namely Businessses including MSMEs ; Poor including migrant workers and farmers; Agriculture; New Horizons of growth; Government reforms and enablers.

Flow of Contents

My vision about the initiative
Objectives
Highlights of the scheme
Specifics of the scheme
Sector - Wise beneficiaries
Challenges
Role of Social, Culture, Education and Technology
Role of Entrepreneurship and Start-ups.
Contribution from the Student Community
Conclusion
Related Readings
References

My vision about the initiative

A good initiative to encourage the people who are distressed by the effect of COVID- 19. The effectiveness of any scheme introduced by Government depends on the how well it is implemented. Hence, this scheme will be successful only if the people of the country benefit out of the scheme to the fullest.

Objectives

to revive the slow or dead economic activities.
to create opportunities to ensure growth in sectors like agriculture, micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), power, coal and mining, defence and aviation, etc.

Highlights of the Scheme

a. Interim measures like liquidity infusion and direct cash transfers for the poor and the needy whose livelihood is severely affected because of COVID -19.

b. Long term reforms for the critically affected sectors to make enable them to be globally competitive and attractive.

Specifics of the Schemes

The following are the policies under Atma Nirbhar Bharat Abhiyan relating to primary, secondary and tertiary sectors.

a. Primary Sector: The measures include reforms to amend ECA, APMC, Contract Framing etc and mitigate the issues in agricultural marketing. To name a few:

· Announcement of Rs 1 lakh crore fund to finance agriculture infrastructure projects.

· Rs 500 crore has been allocated to extended “Operation Greens” which includes Tomatoes, Onion and Potatoes (TOP) to ALL fruits and vegetables (TOTAL).

· Allow farmers to sell their products to anyone, outside the APMC mandi yard and creating a legal framework for contract farming.

· Infusion of Rs 40,000 crore through MNREGA to alleviate the distress of migrants when they return to their villages.

b. Secondary Sector: Since MSME sector is the second largest employment generating sector in India, the following policies will sustain the labour-intensive industries and leverage India’s comparative advantage.

· Rs 3 lakh crore collateral-free loan facility for MSMEs to help this finance-starved sector.

· Limiting imports of weapons and increasing the limit of foreign direct investment in defence from 49% to 74% and reduce India’s huge defence import bill.

c. Tertiary Sector: Policies to enable schools and universities to stream courses online and improve health institutions.

· Launch of “ PM e-Vidya programme” for multi-mode access to digital online education which provide an uniform learning platform for the whole nation.

· Increase of Public expenditure on health by investing in grass root health institutions and ramping up health and wellness centres in rural and urban areas.

Sector-wise beneficiaries

Challenges

Though the scheme looks appealing it is open to criticisms for its shortcomings.

a. Liquidity: The package of Rs 20 lakh crore are to be transmitted by RBI to Banks and Banks to Citizens. This transmission wouldn’t be as smooth and easy owing to inefficient transmission of monetary policy.

b. Lack of Demand: The monetary package announced relies excessively on credit infusion to boost the economy but it has failed to recognise that investment will pick up only when people across income segments have money to spend. Since the lock-down has lowered aggregate demand, and a fiscal stimulus is needed and not just a credit infusion.

c. Lack of Backward and Forward Linkages: There should be a revival of the entire domestic economy and not just the MSME sector. Else MSME may face a shortage of demand, and its production may soon sputter to a close.

d. Escalating Fiscal Deficit: Government claims that the stimulus package is around 10% of India’s GDP. But government needs to find how it will contain the fiscal deficit that is going to arise with the package announced. Though the Government seeks to dis invest to finance the stimulus package, majority of Indian industries already are debt-laden and face difficulty in borrowing from foreign markets as the value of Rupee is all time low.

e. Lack of confidence among corporates: The package focus more on indirect benefits, with a major emphasis on loan disbursal but they would have welcomed direct benefits like cash support and pause or reduction in the GST payments.

f. Higher NPAs : With the announcements of unsecured and collateral free loans to MSMEs might lead to default by companies thereby increasing NPAs.

Role of Social, Culture, Education and Technology

Innovation, Collaboration & Education: To achieve self-reliance, the country will need to encourage innovation, research and development to keep India at the cutting edge of the industry. These can be achieved either through the setting up of global innovation centres in India or through partnerships between leading Indian research/ academic institutions and their global counterparts. While the seeds of such collaboration already exist in the form of the NASA-ISRO partnership and joint vaccine development efforts for Covid-19, these ties should be enhanced across institutions and fields. The success of “self-reliance” lies in the effectiveness of collaboration, India achieves through its bilateral relations, especially with American and European countries.

Governance: Governance and policy issues will also need attention as India seeks to carry on improving its ‘ease of doing business’ climate. Heavy investment on technology in government procedures and bureaucracy is a long overdue necessity that can’t be overlooked. Building world-class infrastructure is extremely critical, and this requires huge investments. A strong framework for collaboration (e.g. contracting) and financing such investments needs to be established. A cultural shift is required in the public sector and bureaucracy to avoid the constant distrust—whether it is towards private organisations or the public at large. While public-private partnerships are a step in the right direction, the success of such partnerships needs to be more widespread.

Role of Entrepreneurship & Start-up

Start-ups can change the world and in coming years more and will grow with innovation and creativity. Entrepreneurship is the only way to enhance the economic growth of a nation. And a small idea can become a big innovative solution which can change the future and help in the economic growth of a nation in the following ways.

Creation of jobs - The start-ups have introduced latest technologies like Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence, and Robotics etc. Most of the technology giant companies outsource their tasks to start-ups now days. It will also help to increase the cash flow of start-ups.

Creation of wealth - Since entrepreneurs are attracting investors by investing their own resources, the people of the nation would get benefit when start-ups grow. Since the money is sharing with the society, wealth is creating within the nation.

Better standard of living - Start-ups can implement innovations and technologies to improve the living of people. There are many start-ups who is working in rural areas to develop the community.

Increase in GDP - Gross Domestic Products plays a vital role in enhancing the economic growth of a country. World Bank says that India will become the fastest growing country as economic growth in the world. By supporting and encouraging more start- ups, it is possible to generate more revenue domestically and consumer’s capital will also flow around the Indian economy.

Contribution from the Student Community

Students can contribute to the nation by becoming responsible buyers. They can support the domestic traders by buying their products instead of demanding for foreign products. They can explore possibilities for entrepreneurship that they can take up after graduation, thereby generating jobs for self and others.

Conclusion

India is supporting and encouraging start-ups to stand up for developing our nation. There are many innovative products and services are implementing by young entrepreneurs of our nation which have induced Indian government to announce schemes for promoting start-ups. Start-up India Schemes are helping many budding entrepreneurs to make their dreams come true and also helping to create more jobs from start-ups. And we hope, India becomes self-reliant, slowly yet steadily and with the schemes announced by the Government of India.

Thursday, July 23, 2020

Atma Nirbhar Bharat Abhiyan