The feeling that the government needs to
strengthen the industry by helping it to come out of the financial depression,
to make India a strong competitor to China was a dominant reflection by a panel
in an ongoing series of webinars being organized by Foreign Correspondent Club
South Asia (FCC).
FCC organized a special webinar on
India’s campaign towards self-reliance with three leading business leaders: Mr
CP Gurnani – MD & CEO, Tech Mahindra, Mr Rajan Mathews – DG, COAI (Cellular
Operators’ Association of India), and senior government official Dr Dinesh
Tyagi- CEO, CSC e- Governance Services India Limited.
They also felt that policy initiatives,
public-private partnership and an enabled entrepreneurship ecosystem down to
the last mile are needed to leapfrog India towards an AtmaNirbhar Bharat
(Self-Reliant India) with a US$5-trillion economy.
Opening the session at the webinar CP
Gurnani, MD & CEO, Tech Mahindra said: “Atma Nirbhar Bharat does not mean
turning away from international trade. In fact, we want to become the enabler
of international trade by taking lead in supply chain. India can adopt
and change but we need leadership from the government in making Atma Nirbhar
Bharat a reality. I am glad the Modi government has given a clarion call. We
need to convert this into a momentum and increase consumption for India to be
self-reliant now.”
Rajan Mathews, DG, COAI said: “We have
talent and we must monetise our capacity to create value. There is a tremendous
amount of opportunity in terms of creating value within the country. We do not
invest heavily in R&D and hence have been left behind in the IPR game. We
have to incentivise R&D if we want to make Atma Nirbhar Bharat a reality.
We must also consider Open Source as a serious business opportunity and become
smarter at trade negotiations. There is a need to prioritise two-three specific
industries as other countries have done. We must make credit cheaper and get
money into the hands of people who can create value. We need to empower
start-ups and individuals to develop our capacities.”
Dr Dinesh Tyagi- CEO, CSC e- Governance Services
India Limited opined: “Our Village Level Entrepreneurs (VLEs) from various
parts of the country are doing wonders and done great work during Covid-19. We
have created ICT-enabled rural enterprises in the country. We are working on
all the services for rural people towards building empowered and digitally
inclusive society. ‘Digital literacy’ through CSCs has emerged as a ray of hope
for life of villagers. For those who are unable to earn their livelihood and
are dependent, digital literacy has proved to be a boon by empowering them to
be self-dependent. These life-changing transformations are being executed by
the VLEs of Common Services Centres across rural swaths of India ,
transforming it into digitally inclusive and empowered society.
Our VLEs are working as DBT: Digital Doctor,
Digital Banker and Digital Teacher. CSC e-Grameen stores are being operated by
one lakh VLEs. We procure the material locally and supply it to local community
Kisan eMart. A farmer can directly sell to consumers. Farmers are being
empowered through various initiatives of CSC. With the help of technology, we
are building Atam Nirbhar Bharat. It talks about empowerment of communities
through CSCs.”
As the world faces an unprecedented
crisis, India
has chosen a renewed path of a self-reliant economy, with Indian Prime Minister
Narendra Modi announcing a Rs 20-Lakh Crore stimulus package “Atma Nirbhar
Bharat” (Self Reliant India) which is 10 % of its economy.
(The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of
South Asia is a group of more than a thousand journalists and photographers
covering India , Pakistan , Bangladesh ,
Sri Lanka , Bhutan , Nepal ,
Maldives , Afghanistan and Tibet ).