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Unfailingly, dawn comes after every dark night. A careful look will show a new ray of hope emerging amid the ruins. Similarly, Prime Minister Narendra Modi was right in saying that the nation should look at Covid-19 as an opportunity and not as an obstacle, as it has presented India a chance to rebuild its economy. The Prime Minister’s observation was a clarion call to all Indians to build ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ or ‘self-reliant India.’ The world has already started looking for an alternative to China to act as a manufacturing hub. The reason behind the search is that the pandemic has shown how the entire world had become entirely dependent on one country in the pre Covid-19 days. As a result, economic activities all over the world came to a grinding halt with the outbreak of corona pandemic in China. Looking forward, no country would like to repeat the same mistake again, and thus India is strongly in the race to be the new manufacturing hub of the world. The criterions which favour India, are bountiful land and human resources, favourable climate, plenty of academic and research institutes, sea ports in both eastern and western coasts and above all being a country which never looks for hegemony in the world order. So, India will always be considered as a favourite destination for investors. Taking a step further, one may say that India is an automatic choice.
In order to seize the opportunity, the central government is providing a huge economic package to make the dream a reality. The economic package announced by the Prime Minister has already taken India ahead of other developing countries in terms of spending 10 per cent of the GDP for the revival of the economy. As a matter of fact, many developed countries have so far not declared such a huge fiscal package. Usually, a major portion of the package will be spent on enhancing infrastructure and providing loans to established and upcoming entrepreneurs so that they can be at the forefront of India’s economic revival. Already, Covid-19 has taken India’s economy a few notches backward, making our task even more challenging. However, Indians have always excelled in challenges and hopefully, this time too will be no exception.
But managing the economy is not the only task that India has to perform at present. Sensing that its hegemony in manufacturing is nearing an end, China has already increased its hostility towards India. The recent incidents in Sikkim and Ladakh border stand as a testimony to this fact. It can be predicted that in the future, China will continue to instigate such acts. At the same time, our northern neighbour will support Pakistan more blindly. Today the world is suffering from terror acts because of support from certain countries. So, India has to be very cautious while dealing with China in post Covid-19 scenario. Fortunately for India, the world opinion is in India’s favour. So, India can always take aid from those friendly countries in-order to prevent China from flexing its muscles. Now is the time to make a self-reliant India and find the ray of hope amongst the darkness of Covid-19.