India must build ‘deep national strengths’ for transition to leading power: Jaishankar
External affairs minister S Jaishankar stressed the necessity for the country to build ‘deep national strengths’ to drive the transition towards becoming a developed economy and leading power
Pune: External affairs minister S Jaishankar on Thursday stressed the necessity for the country to build “deep national strengths” during the “Amrit Kaal”, which will drive the transition towards becoming a developed economy and a leading power.
A recorded video message of EAM Jaishankar was played during the inaugural event of the 5th Asia Economic Dialogue (AED), a three-day annual geo-economics conference organised jointly by the ministry of external affairs and Pune International Centre. The theme of this year’s conference is “Geo-economic challenges in the era of flux”.
Jaishankar stated that the conference appropriately focuses on the geo-economic challenges of current times, highlighting three categories: supply chain challenge, technology challenge, and the challenge of over-concentration stemming from the nature of globalisation.
Regarding the first challenge, the supply chain challenge, Jaishankar pointed out that the world is dangerously dependent on a limited number of suppliers across various sectors due to particular economic hardwiring created by the globalisation era. He stressed the need to introduce greater resilience and reliability to derisk the global economy by creating more options.
Addressing the second challenge, the minister emphasised the growing reliance on technology in daily life, noting the need for more trust and transparency in the digital era, despite seeing the reverse trend with technology providers.
He discussed the challenge of over-concentration, heightened by unpredictability and opacity, particularly emphasised during the Covid pandemic when market dominance was weaponised against the global South.
Jaishankar highlighted the impact of these three phenomena on the evolution of critical and emerging technologies, stressing the need for international cooperation to address these challenges and mitigate unilateral demands and economic domination.
For India, Jaishankar stressed the importance of comprehensive national power across various domains, requiring a massive upgrade of the skills base and an environment conducive to promoting startups and talent. He underscored the necessity of robust manufacturing as the foundation for technology development.
As the most populous country and soon-to-be the third-largest economy, Jaishankar asserted that India’s goals and ambitions cannot be determined by the goodwill of others. He reiterated the vision of the Modi Government to build deep national strengths during the “Amrit Kaal” to drive the transition towards becoming a developed economy and a leading power, aligning with initiatives and programs of the last decade aimed at this end.
(With agency inputs)
