Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan: India’s Road to self-reliance — TextBooq

4 min readNov 15, 2020

Government of India is eyeing towards a sustainable recovery through Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan program. In this article, we will discuss the topic for various Government job examinations like SSC, UPSC. The topic will be presented in an analytical and informative structure so that it becomes helpful for Essay on Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan for various Government job examinations like SSC, UPSC, State PSCs.

Let’s learn.

What is Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan?

Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan is a comprehensive, farsighted post-pandemic initiative by the Government of India to counter the grim economic situation caused by COVID-19 pandemic. The meaning of ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ is self-reliant India. It is a policy that envisages making India capable of competing on a global scale in various fields like as technological, agricultural, defence sector.

Objectives of Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan

The policy has been formulated to curtail the import dependence by focusing on improving the quality and safety standards of made in India products to compete in the global value chain.
Promotion of Made-in-India products.
To provide adequate support towards the vulnerable sectors like migrants, construction sector, street vendors. They are provided with special economic packages to counter with the stagnated economic situation. The vulnerable sectors have been provided with food grains under Garib Kalyan Yojana.
To inject liquidity in the most hit sectors like agriculture, infrastructure, automobile, housing, aviation etc.

Significance of Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan

Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan would be a perfect platform of turning a crisis into an opportunity, India recently emerged as the highest producer and exporter of PPE kits and N-95 masks. The policy is not only about the economic stimulus package but also on bold reforms in different sectors. Initially, the reforms and stimulus measures were announced under Rs 20 lakh crore package by the Finance Minister in five tranches which were introduced through the PM Garib Kalyan Yojana along with the Liquidity Injection reforms by the Reserve Bank of India.

The announcement of the policy also includes several major aspects of bold reforms in various sectors which are discussed below in the brief form. Let’s have a look.

Starting from labour sector reforms , National Floor Wage will be introduced to remove disparity in minimum wages in various parts of the country. ESIC coverage will be provided for employees in hazardous industries, a dedicated portal of migrant workers will be introduced, the Occupational Safety & Health (OSH) code will be provided to all hazardous industries.
Health sector reforms will contain setting up Infectious Diseases Hospital Blocks in all districts, laboratory network and surveillance will be boosted by Integrated Public Health Labs in all districts, National Digital Health Mission will be empowered.
PM eVIDYA, a program is a way to make the digital education accessible is one of the bold reforms in education sector reforms. Manodarpan, an initiative for psychological support for students, teachers, and families, National Curriculum and Pedagogical framework for school, National Foundational Literacy and Numeracy Mission are some few other major initiatives in this sector.
Ease of Doing Business through the changed definition of MSMEs
Farmers will be empowered by enabling them to sell agriculture produce only to licensed APMCs It is one of the key Agriculture Marketing Reforms. Risk mitigation for farmers will be assured, contract farming will be boosted by a legal framework.
Commercial mining will be introduced as a bold reform in the coal sector. C oal gasification and liquefication will be incentivized to minimize the environmental impact.
separate budget provisioning for weapons, Ordnance Factory Board reforms increased FDI limit from 49 per cent to 74 per cent are some of the key defence sector reforms .
Development of world-class airports, enabling private participation in space activities are some of the significant Aircraft and Airspace sector reforms .

Five Pillars of a Self-reliant India

Five Pillars of a Self-reliant India is announced as

Economy: The quantum jump to get most out of the policy
Infrastructure: Representing modern India
System: Driven by the new age technologies, leaving the old technologies behind
Demography: The vibrant demography is the driving force behind self-reliant India
Demand: Utilization of the strength of our demand-supply chain

Challenges of Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan

The package of Rs 20 lakh crore consists of both fiscal and monetary measures.
A significant amount of the package is liquidity measures which will be transmitted to Citizens via RBI and Banks. This requires a transparent transmission of monetary policy.
The imposed lockdown to restrict COVID 19 has minimized the aggregate demand in the country. Suitable investments are still far away from recognition.
The economic stimulus package is around 10% of India’s GDP which becomes the elephant in the room in accounting for the fiscal deficit.
Difficulty in Mobilising Finances could be another hindrance of the implementation.
As far as financing is concerned, borrowing from the foreign markets would rather be impossible, as rupee with respect to the dollar is an all-time low.

Way Forward

There should be enough awareness of the importance of local products and their promotion across the country.
Demand is stagnated in the country in the post-COVID situation. Infrastructure spending would be the best way to revive the dormant demand scenario in the country.
Implementation of announced holistic Reforms should be made in a time-bound manner.
Finance should be mobilized keeping the fact that India’s foreign reserves are clocked all-time high figure.

Conclusion

As far as the welfare of the world is concerned, India could be a key player in contributing to the development of the entire humanity on the planet. Self-reliance would not cut off India from the world, instead, the policy would rather encompass and harness the current economic crisis to make an economically stable, technologically superior India. It will definitely be the finest instrument to edge on equitable society and achieving sustainable goals in the long run.

Originally published at https://www.textbooq.in on November 15, 2020.