Atmanirbhar mission not leading India towards closed economy, says Niti VC

NITI Aayog on Tuesday sought to dispel the fear that India is favouring a closed economy by promoting ‘Atmanirbhar’ mission, and said the country can achieve better results for its people by having a deeper engagement with the global supply and value chain. Inviting Japanese investors to set up companies in India on a larger scale under the recently launched production linked incentive (PLI) schemes, NITI Aayog Vice-Chairman Rajiv Kumar said India remains very deeply committed to greater integration with global flows and the regional network.

“We would want the Japanese companies to come and make India an export hub to the rest of the world under the PLI scheme. I think the environment is there to develop it because on the Indian side we have done, and we will continue to do whatever is required to attract Japanese investment into India.

“I do want to take this opportunity to dispel any fear at all that the production linked incentive scheme for the Atmanirbhar, the self-reliant India– a call given by the prime minister as a response to the Covid situation and for our economy to come out of it– I want to dispel the fear that it is in any sense leading us towards a closed economy,” Kumar said while speaking at a webinar on the 10th ICRIER-PRI workshop on ‘Policy Responses to COVID-19 in India and Japan and Prospects for Economic Cooperation Going Ahead’.

He said there is no question at all for India to move back from its engagement with the global economy, trade, services, financial and technological aspects among others.

“We are convinced that it is only by a deeper integration for India that we will achieve better results for our people as we go forward.

“And I think what we have done points towards that, whether it the liberalisation of our foreign investment in defense sector, whether it is opening up the defense sector to our private domestic enterprises or liberalisation of our services sector, all that I think points to the fact that India remains very deeply committed to greater integration with global flows and our regional network,” Kumar said while inviting Japanese firms to invest more in India.

He said that Japan can contribute to every aspect of the Indian economy and help it grow the exports by taking advantage of the global demand and achieve a higher share in global trade and merchandise services growth.

“It will help us accelerate our growth and our employment generation and I think that is where the Japanese companies are very well placed to (help us) achieve this in the coming years,” he added.

Speaking on the transition towards green mobility by promoting clean energy, he said Japan has already taken a lead in this field and it can help the Indian companies by inviting them to supply green ammonia– a key input in making hydrogen fuel.

“We have also been working very diligently on the hydrogen mission. I know that Japan has made significant advances in the hydrogen economy, Toyota has just launched its own vehicle and I think that is where…my request to our Japanese friends is that when Japan comes up with its tenders for green ammonia, please do invite Indian companies to supply that,” Kumar said.

“We have a target of exporting 10 metric million tonnes of green ammonia in the next ten years. And green ammonia is the basis for the hydrogen economy and we are committed to producing and taking green hydrogen power very rapidly”.

Earlier on Saturday, Japan announced an investment target of 5 trillion yen (Rs 3,20,000 crore) or USD 42 billion in India in the next five years following talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Japanese counterpart Fumio Kishida, who was on his first visit to India.