The former governor of the Reserve bank of India (RBI), Raghuram Rajan, said at ‘Ideas for India’ conference that India needs to focus on developing upon its liberal democratic values in order to grow as a global leader in supply chain and management.
Former Reserve bank of India (RBI) governor Raghuram Rajan said in a conference on Friday that India’s economic growth depends on capitalizing on the country’s intrinsic values. India needs to take advantage of its strengths, that primarily lies in its tradition and culture, in order to become a global powerhouse.
Rajan also stressed upon the potential of India to become a global leader in supply chain and management through relying on its biggest asset i.e. its liberal democracy. In order to achieve this goal, India will have to further strengthen its liberal democratic values, which in turn will lead to India becoming a trusted global leader.
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India needs to be trusted by foreign governments
Raghuram Rajan, former Reserve bank of India (RBI) governor, was present at the ‘Ideas for India’ conference held on Friday. In his speech, he talked about various aspects of the Indian economy and how the growth curve for India looks in the future.
He emphasized that in order to gain the world’s trust, specifically the western world’s trust, India needs to prioritize its liberal democratic values. It is only through the world’s trust that India has the potential to assume a leadership role in the service industry.
Rajan added, “Our independent judiciary, our liberal democracy, these are critical advantages if we are to go down this manufacturing service-led growth path because this will enable us to earn the world’s trust; it’s intrinsically necessary.”
The former RBI governor also talked about India’s comparison to China. He elaborated that to compete against a cheap supplier like China, India needs to focus on the service side of manufacturing and establish itself as a trusted global supplier.
Post-pandemic times have seen a major shift in the manufacturing monopoly of China. Major tech companies, including Apple, have already begun to shift their focus towards the Indian manufacturing market and dissociate themselves from their dependence on China.
India cannot risk being seen as an anti-minority country
India is currently the largest democracy in the world. But in order to grow, India needs to convey its liberal democratic values through its actions.
The current Indian government has been widely criticized on what western countries are calling its weakening democratic prowess.
Some of the recent examples of this include, the Indian government’s ban on the BBC documentary regarding Gujarat riots, which goes explicitly against the freedom of press in a democratic country.
India has also been criticized in the west over its limited religious freedom as a democracy. Raghuram Rajan has also, in the past, talked about the issue stating that India cannot risk being perceived as an anti-minority country. That could lead to India being seen as an unreliable partner by foreign governments.
On the issue, Rajan commented, “We want democracy as Indians but we also want democracy to be able to convince the world that we can be trusted, that we can be effective providers of these kinds of services… we need to do our homework in strengthening our institutions, in strengthening our democracy.”
