-Professor M.M. Goel*
Atamnirbhar Bharat Abhiyan (ABA) as an idea of India (vision) announced by the Prime Minister (PM) on May 12, 2020 deserve to be understood, analysed, interpreted and adopted with positive mind-set. To start a new chapter in Indian economy in post covid era of lockdown, ABA is necessary for the survival, existence and excellence of every Indian. Atamnirbhar in Hindi means self-reliance in an open economy. It need not be understood as self sufficiency of a closed economy as a frog of the well approach confused with the swadeshi mission.
By understanding the relevance of ABA, we, the people of India have a definite role to play as consumers, producers, distributors and traders. To do what one has to do for ABA, we need to possess positive feelings for sab ka vikas, sab ka sath and sab ka vishwas as is the slogan of the PM. For the success of ABA, the onus lies on the people as consumers, distributors and traders.
To play my role as needonomist (economist of needs), I have the duty to make people understand ‘needonomics’ (economics of needs) which is non-violent, ethical and spiritual in nature. I believe that the lockdown have formed good habits as a discipline of life by changed lifestyle of all in the economy including consumers, producers, distributors and traders. We have to forget the pains of lockdown and stop anxieties, stress, and tensions and avoid confusions with consistency in thoughts and actions. The attention deficit (AD) of the stakeholders of the Indian economy is more dangerous than all kinds of deficits including fiscal deficit (FD), revenue deficit (RD), primary deficit (PD), budget deficit (BD) and trust deficit (TD). This calls for remaining alert, aware and awake with wisdom and rationality (vivek) for everything happening around in the global society including ABA.
To escape the trap of the huge dimension of lockdown, we have to understand ‘Cobra effect’ making solutions worsening the problem (unhappy consequences). We have to understand Chakravyuha Challenges of the Indian economy and research solutions in ABA. We have to take care of non-economic challenges built in the challenges of inclusive growth including careless and useless manpower as half-baked products and not employable. More than the economic package of Rs 20 L crore (10% of GDP), we have to be careful and useful for the economy.
There are many challenges for implementing ABA such as demography as plenty of people but with opportunities including demographic dividend. I foresee the crisis of covid bigger than expected difficult to quantify but implications in terms of recession (if not depression), bankruptcies, unemployment, underemployment, farmers’ suicides, white-collar crimes, terrorism, exploitation, discriminations, deprivations and discontent among the stakeholders as the challenges for ABA.
To relieve MSMEs economic plight, the key announcements of ABA includes Rs 3 lakh crore loans for MSMEs, Rs 50,000 crore equity infusion through MSME Fund of Funds, Rs 20 crore subordinate debt for MSMEs, Extension of registration and completion date of real estate projects under RERA, Immediate pending refunds issuance to all non-charitable trusts, extension of the due date for ITR for FY’19-20 to November 30, 2020.To achieve the objectives of ABA, the PM needs to convert Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) into a MNC for giving a brand name to the products of MSME with a stroke of pen. As an honest needonomist, I do not support the change in the definitions of MSMEs as these entrepreneurs want to continue in the same category for corning the benefits under the various schemes. Meaning there by, making the things difficult for new entrants to compete with them. They want to remain small with all kinds of fear which is not healthy and not in the interest of boosting self-employment for the Indian youth under ABA.
To enthuse farmers, the decision of the government to amend Essential Commodities Act of 1955 as marketing reform is necessary and deserve appreciation but not sufficient as an agricultural reform. To make sufficient agricultural reforms in India, we need ‘rainbow revolution’ not merely increasing the productivity but ensuring agro product processing with the facilities for their exports. To prevent grain wastage, we have to meet storage gap by easing the load of the go-downs as we cannot afford to rot the food grains. We need adequate, proper preservation and storage capacity. We should prepare ourselves against vagaries of weather and unseasonal rain. The movement from the go-downs to the designated destinations need to be made fast. We have to make storage easy task with facilitative setup within reach.
To be successful in ABA, we need to increase domestic saving rate necessary for investments for the growth in the various sectors of the economy. . Indian domestic saving rate is 31 % now and was 37 % in 2008 where as China’s is 46 % and was 51 % in 2008. I believe that the domestic saving rate is capable of strengthening the economy in-terms of all indicators of the performance of the economy including rate of investment, capital formation GDP, exports and GNP.
To make the economy shock proof, we need commitment, honesty and enthusiasm among all the stake holders. I fail to comprehend the shock bearing capacity of the Indian economy dependent to some extent on the informal sector. I know many Indians don’t have the capacity of buying food for a day with no purchasing power. There are enough beggars in my beloved India who manage their survival. But there are people who cannot beg but want to work to earn their livelihood which will certainly be made possible by implementing ABA.
To make infrastructure sufficient for the ABA, we have to declare population control as a basic infrastructural activity. There is always a scope to improve the system with ease in doing business with the improved behaviour of the bureaucrats who always create hurdles by saying no.
There is a case for ‘needonomics’ as a strategy for ABA by understanding, analysing, interpreting and adopting as nonviolent, spiritual and ethical in nature for improving the socio-economic conditions of Indians .We have to replace fear with fearlessness and work without worries (www)- the real www in the virtual world wide web (www).
To take care of the fiscal deficit in post covid era, the Government has to windup avoidable activities including ostentatious expenditures to maintain state Governors and Indian embassies around the world as the same work can be performed and looked after by a special Cell in Rashtrapati Bhawan and PMO in one room with E-Governance.
Vasudhiava Kutumbakam ( the world is one family) as the Indian ethos is merely given the lip service by the politicians in power which is evident in ABA by over emphasizing ‘vocal for local’. To my mind, we should be little diplomatic and use the wisdom for ‘Glocalization’ meaning thereby think globally and act locally.
It gives me deep pain to observe the miserable plight of the migratory workers which conveys silent protest of the workers denied basic needs, miserable state of affairs. Let government understand their struggle and predicament come out with concrete programme of action ,more than lip service.
To boost demand for reviving the economy, we have to be honest with the middle class consisting of employees calling for the restoration of dearness allowance as it is a compensation for inflation. We have to protect the interests of middle class politically poor but are the only hope for creating demand for goods and services.
To revive faster and become prosperous nation in tune with new India vision, we have to be conscious for physical, mental, emotional and spiritual heath of Indians. This calls for matching of the audio (words) and video ( body language ) among politicians. We have to monitor and evaluate as awakened Indian citizenry continuously with honesty of purpose and without hypocrisy.
To ensure proper implementation of ABA, we are required to become street smart more than using smart phones. We need to understand, analyze, interpret and adopt street SMART & SIMPLE models of human values developed by the writer in the book ‘Economics of Human Resource Development in India’ (2011) necessary and sufficient for implementing ABA.
SMART means simple, moral, action oriented, responsive and transparent attributes as components of the personality of an individual with values of life. To adopt and accept the normative approach to holistic human resource development (HRD) , it is essential to understand SIMPLE model of HRD consisting of six human development activities such as Spiritual Quotient (SQ) development, Intuition development, Mental level development, Love oneself attitude development and Emotional quotient (EQ) development. The synergy of these six aspects of HRD in the beautiful word ‘SIMPLE’ is essential requirement for all of us to emerge and realize our full potential in holistic sense. An enlightened life as street smart helps in developing skills, values, wisdom and vision to align and harmonize new connectivity among various economic sectors in society.
To become prosperous in post covid era with ABA, we need to follow spiritually guided materialism (SGM) strategy flowing from Gita (sloka no 22 of Chapter 9) justifying ‘needonomics’ (economics of needs). It is necessary and sufficient to say no to all the socio-economic problems including terrorism and corruption of all kinds spreading hatred, discontent and discriminations in my beloved Bharat- the knowledge seeker economy enjoying the status of Vishav Guru based on dharma (not religion) which is humanity with spirituality.
To implement ABA flawlessly, it would be relevant to adopt the canons of public expenditure advocated by Dr. B.R. Ambedkar by spending the resources garnered from the public not only according to rules, laws and regulations, but should also see that ‘faithfulness, wisdom and Economy’ are adhered to in the acts of expenditure by public authorities.
For facing the challenges of multidimensional nature, we need discipline in the economy which calls for compulsory five year military service as being practised in South Korea.
To reduce the coefficient of distrust (trust deficit) among various stakeholders of ABA including foreign investors, we need to create trust and faith in the fundamentals of Indian economy by acting swiftly with timeliness (no delays) and responsibility.
For becoming self-reliant, capable and strong, we require real education as proper, productive and practical (3P) use of hands; heads ad hearts (3H) for which online education is not sufficient. We can achieve morality, opulence, victory and empowerment to participate in the socio-economic development with common sense approach under ABA.
* Former Vice Chancellor and known as ‘Needonomist’ (economist for needs) in India living in Kurukshetra.
