Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister Shaktikanta Das on Friday said India is on the cusp of a historic economic journey, with government policies and reforms giving the country a “headwind” despite rising global trade uncertainties.Delivering the inaugural Bibek Debroy Memorial Lecture, Das said India has emerged stronger from successive global shocks and is now in a position to pursue sustained growth despite a fragmented global economic system, PTI reported.
Self-reliance is resilience, not isolation“At a time when the consensus that has driven globalization over the past decades has weakened and multilateral cooperation has become difficult to achieve, India has adopted atmanirbharta as the overarching principle of our policies,” Das said.Clarifying the approach, he said: “Self-reliance is not isolationist, but a strategy to build core capabilities and resilience. Economic self-reliance means developing the capacity to produce critical goods and technologies at home and reducing overdependence on foreign sources.”A self-reliant economy, supported by strong domestic capabilities and an autonomous foreign policy, provides India with greater strength to sustain growth and deal with external challenges, he said. “Together, they ensure that India’s rise is resilient, sustainable and beneficial for us and the world.”From global shocks to ‘wind in our sails’Das said India has successfully emerged from the “perfect storm” triggered by multiple global shocks since the COVID-19 outbreak in 2020.“And now the policies that the country has adopted have made our path easier. We are truly on the path to a developed India,” he said.He said, India stands at a juncture where changing geopolitical alignments and trade policies are reshaping the global economic landscape.“India today stands at the cusp of a historic journey – from being an unreliable India to becoming a credible India. There will be adversities and challenges coming from sources known and unknown,” Das said.Fragmenting world, India’s strategic responseDas underlined the tensions on global institutions and multilateral frameworks, saying that traditional multilateralism is increasingly being sidelined by geopolitical rivalries, protectionism and fragmentation.He said, “Major international institutions are struggling to fulfill their mandate… Trade and supply chains, once seen as neutral vehicles of globalization, are now being used as instruments of disruption and domination.”Reshoring, friends-shoring and restricted technology flows are fragmenting the global network, reflecting broader geo-economic fragmentation, Das said.In this background, India’s approach is pragmatic. He said, “India stands for a cooperative and rules-based global system; but at the same time, we are actively building partnerships and strategies to secure our national interests in a world where power is more diffused.”“We certainly accept that the multilateral system must be revitalized, even as we adapt to new alignments,” Das said.
