When India speaks of becoming self-reliant, it doesn't advocate a self-centred system. In India's self-reliance; there is a concern for the whole world's happiness, cooperation and peace. Hon'ble PM, Shri Narendra Modi.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s response to the economic adversities confronting the Indian economy due to the COVID-19 crisis has been the “AtmaNirbhar Bharat Abhiyan.” Is the PM’s call for a self-reliant India to be myopically interpreted as import substitution or does this call respect the profoundness of the very concept of a self-reliant economy? The monetary package underlying the Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan inclines one to, at least prima facie, believe that the latter is true. This article takes a deeper dive into whether this is indeed the case.

First and foremost, making an economy self-reliant must at best refer to a medium-term horizon if not the longer term. It surely is not something that can be achieved in the short run.

Farmers are one of the pillars of an economy. The economic health of a farmer matters significantly to whether an economy can be regarded as self-reliant. The greater ambition for a self-reliant economy is to transform the farmer into an agripreneur. India’s farmers are bound by the shackles of low productivity, low incomes, lack of access to institutional credit, indebtedness etc. They are reeling under the burden of a fragmented agricultural marketing ecosystem and climatic uncertainties and vagaries of nature. A self-reliant farmer is fundamental to the vision of a self-reliant India. Has the Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan spoken to these concerns?