PMO seeks ideas to boost self-reliance

NEW DELHI: The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) has sent a questionnaire to all ministries and departments seeking inputs and ideas on the “meaning of Atmanirbharta (self-reliance)” .

The Prime Minister’s Office has also sought inputs on steps to improve governance, addressing the issue of regional imbalance as a “challenge to Atmanirbharta” and ways to promote the government’s call for “vocal for local” and “local for global.” It has also sought ideas on expanding the MSME sectors and addressing issues of “quality of policies, products and processes.”

The questionnaire sent by the PMO, a copy of which has been reviewed by Hindustan Times has to be submitted by all ministries by October 28, according to officials aware of the development.

“India’s GDP is concentrated in major industrial hubs in West and South India and hence there are vast inter regional and intra-regional development gaps. Under Aatmanirbhar Bharat scheme the government aims to bridge the gap and set up new industries in these underdeveloped areas,” a senior official said.

“The government has decided to be more aggressive to address the issue of significant trade imbalance and the strategic implications of the same. Therefore, the government should look at two things; ending imports of lower end products like pens, mouse pads etc, which we are being imported from China. Domestic production can easily take over such products. The second should be to focus on high-end products such as laptops and smartphones manufacturing with strategies such as Phased Manufacturing plan, which was highly successful in building India’s auto industry,” said Jaijit Bhattacharya, president of the Centre for Digital Economy Policy Research (CDEP), a think tank.