‘Pandemic exposed chinks in India’s manufacturing sector’
PremiumThe minister said that India was pursuing free trade agreements with the UK and the European Union ‘very seriously’
NEW DELHI : The covid-19 pandemic exposed the lack of basic manufacturing in India, Indian foreign minister S Jaishankar said on Thursday while urging the business community in the country to build strong domestic supply chains that would help withstand shortages in the global system.
Speaking at the Confederation of Indian Industry’s Annual meet, the minister also said that India was pursuing free trade agreements with the UK and the European Union “very seriously."
It was also one his “top" priorities to ensure that Indians travelling abroad face the least possible restrictions due to the type of vaccines they have received, the minister added.
When asked about lessons learnt from the covid-19 pandemic, the minister said one major takeaway was the need to ramp up health infrastructure in the country. A second lesson was that a country of India’s “size and seriousness" should not have been grappling with shortages of oxygen-related equipment, tankers and other materials that were in short supply when the second wave hit the country in April-May, the minister said.
“The uneven nature of our manufacturing in fact raises some questions on how balanced our growth has been over the last 25 years and to my mind, makes a very strong case why we should actually give all round manufacturing with our own supply chain because the covid period really exposed us to the uncertainties of supply chains," Jaishankar said.
“The fact that we were so dependent in many areas for components and systems and products from outside I think a country of our size and future should not have those vulnerabilities," he said.
Jaishankar was referring to India scouring the international markets for oxygen related equipment including cylinders and cryogenic tanks to transport oxygen to hospitals across the country as hundreds of thousands of people fell sick and many of them required oxygen support. India also fell short of some medicines needed to treat critically ill people. More than 50 countries across the world sent in aid – oxygen concentrators, cylinders and other equipment while India imported larger containers to transport oxygen by road and rail to hospitals across the country.
On building “national champion" industries, the minister said “if manufacturers truly want to be national champions, they should be building supply chains at home. We will not make national champions if our supply chains are based abroad. And at the end of the day they all feed in and our businesses are integration businesses."
“I am all for opening up," the minister said referring to unshackling the Indian economy in 1991. “But it should not be that we open up to the world in a way in which we hollow out sectors of our own economy, that our own businesses find it difficult to get a level playing field in our own country," the minister cautioned. “Atmanirbhar Bharat" or self reliant India was tailored to build “deep strengths," the minister said.
On free trade pacts, Jaishankar said India needed to look for partners with complementarities, “those who would not necessarily be in the same space those who would offer us much bigger market growth possibilities."
“To me an FTA with the UK, an FTA with the EU both of which we are pursuing very seriously we don’t have many of the challenges that we have from other Asian countries," he said.
The minister acknowledged problems faced by Indians travelling for work or studies abroad due to covid-19 restrictions and added that solving these were top priority for him.
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