The Financial Express : Jun 26, 2020, 09:10 AM
New Delhi: Slamming India’s over-dependence on China, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman today said that there is nothing wrong to import goods that help to boost production and provide job opportunities but importing goods such as Ganesha idols from China is unacceptable. Nirmala Sitharaman added that importing essential raw materials that are not available in the country is not wrong but why there is a situation where we cannot even make Ganesha idols from clay, PTI reported. Speaking on the government’s Atma Nirbhar Bharat Abhiyaan, she said that imports that could not bring benefits like employment and economic growth would not help self-reliance and the Indian economy, while addressing the BJP’s Tamil Nadu unit workers.The Finance Minister highlighted that household products such as soap-box, plastic items or incense sticks would support self-reliance when they are made locally in India. She also underlined that self-reliance was practised in India for long, but the trend changed and we started to depend on foreign nations to import goods. To curb imports and boost the ‘Make in India’ campaign amid the coronavirus-led crisis, Prime Minister Narendra Modi rolled out the Atma Nirbhar Bharat Abhiyaan package, which was worth Rs 21 lakh crore. The package included bank guarantees, liquidity measures, monetary measures, and free food grains, among other major relief measures. In the same package, there was also a provision of government-backed guarantees MSME loans worth Rs 3 lakh crore, which was aimed at providing cushion to India’s micro, small and medium enterprises. Meanwhile, after the brutal face-off between India and China earlier this month, there is a nationwide rage to boycott Chinese goods. Even various state governments including Haryana, Maharashtra, and Uttar Pradesh have announced anti-China moves.