Indian industries owe it to India and its people to create supply chains at home, Jaishankar said

The world today is comfortable to see more production out of India, External Affairs Minister, S Jaishankar observed while highlighting that Covid-19 has cemented India’s place as a good platform for global production.

Speaking at the 6th National Leadership Conclave on Monday EAM Jaishankar said, “What Covid-19 had done is that it has brought into the global debate, a sense that India is a good platform for global production. The world is comfortable to see more production out of India.”

“We are a market economy, we are an open society and our mindset is global. By and large the world trusts us. This is the time to step up,” he emphasized while speaking at the All India Management Association (AIMA) organized virtual event.

The EAM argued that trust has become a premium commodity in both international relations and in business, reliability has become more important than anything else.

“We all want to do business with each other in a way in which we do not feel it is unfairly leveraged,” he reckoned.

“Looking at the world ahead, countries would be comfortable with partners who in their view would not leverage technology and link non-trade issues with trade,” Jaishankar noted.

He stressed upon the need of combining the advantage the country of Atma Nirbhar Bharat which has given India more capacity and the environment that has given India, a trusted profile or a better branding there could be better possibilities.

“Certainly, Indian industries owe it to India and Indian people to create supply chains at home,” he remarked.

“How do we build deeper strengths and capacities which would face such kinds of storms in the future,” he asked.

The great takeaway in the making from the pandemic is a lesson that you cannot take risks in good times and think that the risks would not come back to haunt you in tough times, EAM Jaishankar said.

“The pressure on us to ramp up production today, I hope as a country, as an economy as an industry all of us take that as a message that we need to build a stronger and deeper at home,” he stated.