ATMA-NIRBHAR

BHARAT

SELF RELIANT
INDIA : WAY
FORWARD AND
LESSONS TO
LEARN FROM
CHINA TEAM NAME : RITWIK
CHANAKYA MEHTA
 PATHWAY TO ECONOMIC RECOVERY
A strategy based on the following reforms will create a very
dynamic, low-cost economy capable of very rapid growth:
a) Privatisation
b) Labour reforms
c) Power sector reforms
d) Infrastructure investment in public transportation systems,
roads, airports, ports, railways, education and health
e) Property market reforms
f) Government deficit reduction and
g) An export oriented economy attracting higher FDI inflows
 WHAT TO LEARN FROM CHINA
China in its 2006 National Medium and Long-Term Program for
Science and Technology Development (2006-2020) (MLP),
made indeginous development as its national strategy. Increasing
the number of R&D grants and subsidies is the vital feature of
China’s strategy.
Those grants and subsidies given are further strategically used
with the use of public procurement to prop up local companies.

Example : China made it compulsory for government-funded

organizations to buy NEVs (the New Energy Vehicles) more than 30%
of their buses and cars and failing to do so will lead to reduction in
their fuel subsidies.
 ESTABLISHING DATA CENTRES - A CRUCIAL STEP
The quantum of internet exchange through NIXI is only 17 Gbps, which is
the first and only neutral internet exchange body in India. All operational
ISPs, data centres and content providers must be connected with NIXI
for the neutral exchange of domestic internet traffic.

The incentives must be linked with the adoption of standard and highest
performance including the lowest PUE (power usage effectiveness), high
quality standards, adoption of green energy etc.

Since Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities in India will drive the need for data centres,
the best practices for their maintenance can be opted from the Rapid
Data Centre (RDC) in Europe which uses modern techniques of
construction to minimise onsite construction, save time and increase
quality.
 PROBLEM WITH INDIA'S POLICY
Though India has Science, Technology and Innovation (STI)
policy 2013 that focuses on public procurement, it lacks specific
instruments like innovation accreditation systems like China.

The schemes rolled out by India’s Science and Technology

Department are not efficiently backed up by financial capacity.

Talking about the ICT industry, India has lacked behind because
of failure to invest in chip-manufacturing capability. India can kick
start the process with the help from the US, South Korea, or
Taiwan.
 PROBLEM WITH INDIA'S POLICY
The seriousness about innovation can be seen from the fact that China spends
around $496 billion on R&D while India spends only $50 billion (PPP figures,
2017).

India’s national security should be supported only by the national technological

and economical strength.

The evidence of biggest-lucana in trade policy is that still today tenders and
contracts are taken up by the Big 4/foreign OEMs; foreign companies receive
largesse under the Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) while our local
high-tech firms are straightway rejected.

These steps can be backed up with another scathing fact that India’s high tech
manufacturing sector has shrunk by 14% between 2011 and 2015.
 REFORMS REQUIRED IN POLICIES
The first practical step would be to allow the top R&D intensive
domestic companies for priority procurement, tax incentives,
grants or low-interest loans.

The government must ponder on implementing a No-Cost-Full-

Commitment (NCFC) procurement model. As of now, the R&D
grants are just being given to academic institutes and not to
companies.

India Needs DARPA (A Defence Advanced Research Projects

Agency). We need to move towards the American model of the
networked science state.
 Reforms Required in the Telecom Sector
The telecom industry has to keep the tariff rates sustainably high
instead of trying to make them the cheapest in the world.
In order to revive BSNL and MTNL, government has decided to
merge them and then provide funds to the merged entity. Same
approach should be applied to other private service providers also.
Government should put the penalty and interest money into capital
investment for the telecom industry, to provide availability to
equipments and technologies on an equal access basis.
Moving Wi-Fi zones or public Wi-Fi zones in India should not be
completely free of cost instead India can learn from the Emirates,
Singapore which charges its customers for data after exhausting
the limits set by the airlines.
 BRINGING 5G IN INDIA - THE ATMA-NIRBHAR WAY
We can stop Chinese interference on 5G by correct implementation of
Public Procurement (Make in India) Policy’s clause 10d.
The Government has the option of announcing a high basic custom duty
of, say, 30% 5G imports, almost a year before the auction of spectrum.
The government can call upon Reliance Jio also to set up a 5G
manufacturing base. With support from Samsung and other players,
they have done wonders to become India’s strongest telecom and data
service provider.
If they and other potential domestic consortium players along with
Ericcson, Nokia, etc enter the 5G manufacturing base in the country on
the strength of 35% advantage referred above, it could be a win-win
situation for the country. They will be competitive enough to challenge
even Chinese in export markets.
 RECOMMENDATIONS
1) India’s FDI policy has not imposed any WTO-compatible
performance requirements or technology transfer obligations on
MNCs. In this way, India’s dependence on Big Tech companies stifles
our learning trajectory.

2) Skill students through industry - vocational academia partnerships

are crucial for an R&D intensive economy. Germany and Switzerland
are the top innovator because of this policy.

3) Rather than creating new institutions, focus should be to re-model

and re-engineer the older ones on the lines of best international
practices.
 RECOMMENDATIONS
4) Private Sector should not be burdened with compliance
requirements like setting up STI offices in their premises. This has
forced companies to spend more on bureaucracy rather than R&D.

5) India must start incentivizing its best people to return back and do
the research just like China does. China incentivized ist best people to
return from America and started its semiconductor industry.

6) There should be proper auditing of the funds transferred to

Academia. It has been found that a lot of funds go to waste and does
not increase Nation’s S&T capabilities. Funding should be passed
through to fund R&D in firms.
 CONCLUSION
All other manufacturing giants are ageing: For example, Japan, EU, the US,
South Korea and China. Ageing population has forced them to move out
of low-end labor-intensive manufacturing.

China’s lost advantage: Due to a rise in wages, strict environmental

regulations and an increase in the cost of production along with the
uncertainties due to China’s friction with the US and other countries.

India’s STI policy should focus on long-term basic research in the field of
manufacturing and R&D priority areas such as IT, electronics,
pharmaceuticals and agriculture. Pumping of R&D investments only in
specific areas helped China become a global leader in areas such as
super computing, nanotechnology and clean energy.