Politics Now Trumps Economics, Says Jaishankar At IIM-Calcutta

On Saturday, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar stated that in the current period, politics is taking precedence over economics and that it is crucial that "we continuously diversify supply sources to guarantee national needs" in a "uncertain world."

After receiving an Honorary Doctorate from IIM-Calcutta on this campus, Jaishankar was speaking to an audience.

He also noted that India has been actively pursuing self-reliance and making itself a manufacturing base for industries.

"This is an era where politics increasingly trumps economics... and that is not a pun... In an uncertain world, it is all the more important that we continuously diversify supply sources to guarantee our national needs," Jaishankar said.

"The United States, long the underwriter of the contemporary system, has set radically new terms of engagement. It is doing so by dealing with countries on a one-on-one basis," he noted.

The external affairs minister said that China has “long played by its own rules”, and is doing so even now.

In the ensuing scenario, other nations are unclear whether attention should be on visible competition or the trade-offs and understandings that punctuate it, he said.

"Faced with such pulls and pressures of globalisation, of fragmentation and of supply insecurity, the rest of the world responds by hedging against all contingencies," Jaishankar said.

He claimed that India has been making exponential progress in both the most recent scientific discoveries and infrastructure.

Jaishankar stated that the "resilience and reliability" of supply chains have come to light because a third of the world's production today occurs in China.

“Conflicts and climate events have added to the possibility of that disruption,” Jaishankar said. India's gap with some of the more successful Asian economies is fast narrowing in terms of infrastructure – highways, railways, aviation, ports, energy and power.

"We are now moving ahead, by any standards," he said, maintaining that the world is taking note of the advancements being made by India.

"... With these considerations in mind, we are today endeavouring to forge new trade arrangements and promote fresh connectivity initiatives," the minister said.

When it comes to trade, “we will naturally be guided by our people-centric vision, just as our connectivity plans will be by strategic as well as economic considerations,” he said.

According to Jaishankar, "the goal of foreign policy is to steadily expand our footprint beyond its current confines" as the government prepares for a developed India by 2047.

He claimed that a foundation for doing so is created by India's solidarity with the Global South.

According to Jaishankar, India's diplomatic mission is "active rather than passive" in terms of boosting overall national might.

"A major power, that too with high aspirations like us, must have a significant industrial base," he said.

"Promoting industrial growth and even incentivising it, is today a key economic priority," the minister said, maintaining that emphasis on 'Make in India' in the last one decade speaks of a "different mindset and greater ambition".

He said that attention is being paid to advanced technologies and advanced manufacturing so that India does not lag behind.

"We are now in the world of chips and semiconductors, electric vehicles and batteries, drones and space, or that of nanotech and bioscience. Each of them offers opportunity to leapfrog and establish unique capabilities," Jaishankar said.