'There is, today, a very different India in the making': S Jaishankar to IIMB students

NEW DELHI: External affairs minister S Jaishankar addressed the students of the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Bangalore on Atmanirbhar Bharat today, June 10. He said that India is going through a socio-economic change, and informed the students that the India they will step into at the beginning of their careers will be fundamentally different from how the country was when their studies began.

Jaishankar explained the concept of Atmanirbhar Bharat and said that it aims to create a better enabled India which is better fed, healthy and self-reliant. He further said that the concept of Atmanirbhar Bharat does not mean a protectionist India. "..It is: make with, and make for, the world. India is not trying to get more strength by building walls, but by engaging with the global community,” he said.

The minister pointed out that the government schemes are aligned to sustainable goals, and said that physical infrastructure, urbanization, smart cities, digital policies, innovation push etc. are required for attaining these goals. He further stressed the need to increase the number of premium higher education institutions, raise tertiary education and build vocational skills in the country.

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Jaishankar cited the making of COVID-19 vaccines, achieving 2 billion shots, and the CoWIN platform as examples of a more self-reliant India. “If we apply the same mindset to our perennial challenges, we can come up with sustainable solutions for them. The COVID experience taught us that in times of stress not being Atmanirbhar can become a national security vulnerability issue. India, like large parts of the world post COVID, is moving to a ‘just-in-case’ scenario and building capacity to be self-reliant. India is working to enhance its domestic supply chain networks. Atmanirbhar Bharat is an economic outlook – it is national self-confidence. We need to utilize and leverage our connect with the world to build our indigenous capacities. We need to facilitate ease of doing business, and be a manufacturing economy, along with being a service economy,” he said.

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