New Delhi: Making a strong pitch for \\”Vocal for Local,\\” Vice President Jagdeep Dhankar said on Friday that the time has come to subscribe to economic nationalism, as this will stop the drain of foreign exchange and also give a boost to employment generation in India.Economic nationalism is essentially fundamental to our economic growth. Mark my words carefully: nationalism is important and paramount; we have to subscribe to it. Time for us to subscribe to economic nationalism as well. We need to import only what is unavoidably essential,\\” he said, addressing the summit of start-ups and MSMEs.
Trade and industry must be alive to the ill effects of not subscribing to economic nationalism, he said, adding that apart from the avoidable drain of foreign exchange, this also cuts into our employment opportunities.\\”Imagine the important items that can be made here. What are we doing? We are depriving hands in our country of work and giving work to hands outside,\\” he said, adding that it also impedes the growth of entrepreneurship.
He said nobody will disagree that we need to be extremely cognizant of the deeper impact of economic nationalism. Another aspect that needs the attention of trade and industry is the export of raw materials. Here, the industry exports raw materials when there is potential for value addition in our country.\\”If we were to add value to a raw material, some people would get jobs, and some would be entrepreneurs. We sacrifice these twin advantages that can constitute the spinal strength of our economy and export raw materials because it is easy to make money by exporting raw materials,\\” he said, adding that this money is easy for individuals but very painful for the nation.
There are nations that have devised a mechanism; they will not export their raw materials; rather, they will add value, and even for adding value, they will not add minor value but will add real value to it and then you will be contributing to the national economy.India has seen a massive jump in startups in the last decade. From just over 350 startups in 2014, India now has more than 1.30 lakh startups, with the number of unicorns surpassing 100, a PIB release said, quoting the Vice President’s address to the summit.
