Is India turning inward? Does atmanirbharta mean trade restrictions and high tariff walls? And if yes, is this the right recipe for growth story? That’s the focus of a recent paper written by Dr. Arvind Subramanian and Shoumitro Chatterjee – both professors at Ashoka University.
The paper argues that the emphasis on turning inward, and emphasising domestic markets rather than export led growth is based on 3 myths: 1. that India’s domestic market size is big, 2. that India’s growth has so far been based on domestic not export markets, and 3. that export prospects are dim because the world is de-globalising.
The authors prove why all these three premises are wrong and they go on to argue that in fact India has done well in exports, and that there are a lot of export opportunities even in today’s world, especially in labour intensive exports and that for high exports, India needs easier imports.
To discuss more about the paper, CNBC-TV18’s Latha Venkatesh caught up with the authors themselves.
For more details, watch video