Globalization and the Politics of Self-Reliance

• In Event: Domestic and International Affairs

Abstract

Countries are intrinsically woven into the complex web of interdependence in this globalized era. Therefore, achieving self-reliance through measures through protectionist measure becomes an impractical pursuit. However, Narendra Modi, launched the Atma-Nirbhar Bharat (ANB) initiative in 2020. Unlike the traditional approaches to self-reliance like protectionism and de-globalization, he promises to achieve self-reliance by inviting FDIs and FIIs. The multi-sectoral and multi-dimensional umbrella initiative has both political and economic motivations which I’ve tried to explore in this paper. Security rivalry with China and increasing unemployment and inflation rate, that were negatively affecting the popularity of Modi government are taken as independent variable to asses them as a motivating factor for the launch of the ANB initiative. In addition, role of lobbying by the India Cellular and Electronics Association has also been studied as the independent variable to see the role it played in the launch of production linked incentive scheme and labour reforms. The paper aims to situate self-reliance into the broader frame of the OEP politics. Process tracing, archival research and case study are the methods that are employed to carry out this research. The exploratory paper finds that there are broader political and economic implications of self-reliance approaches in this contemporary era and it is still possible for a country to satisfy the objectives of self-reliance i.e., to maintain a fine balance between economic interdependence and political independence and to ensure the effective and efficient utilization of locally available factors of production.

Author

• Yatan Sharma, University of Delaware