Atmanirbharta will not help India globalize: Meghnad Desai

Pune: Meghnad Desai, professor emeritus, London School of Economics, said on Monday that India must learn “sensible” economics to realize its global potential.

Desai was speaking at a lecture, ‘Future of Globalization: Pause or Reset Mode?’, chaired by former Reserve Bank of India governor Urjit Patel and organized by Pune International Centre.

Terming India a “reluctant globalizer”, Desai said, “India has acted below its potential for 75 years. India must wake up and learn sensible economics. BJP was following that path, but seems to have strayed.”

He further said ‘atmanirbharta’ was not a new concept. “Congress had a similar version in 1947. If you want atmanirbharta, you cannot have globalization,” Desai said.

Further saying India was an “insignificant” player on the world stage, Desai said the country’s progress was hobbled by too many different ideological viewpoints, which he said need to be jettisoned in favour of globalization.

Desai also added that the coronavirus pandemic has further affected globalization.

“Coronavirus has threatened the viability of just-in-time (JIT) inventory system, which needs to be seamless to be economically viable,” he added.

Patel too chimed in, saying that a disruption to globalization will be “catastrophic” and that all efforts must be made to avoid it.