Do it yourself

Self-Reliance (Atamnirbharta) has been one of the key policy objective of Indian government, especially during the second term of the incumbent prime minister. It is clarified that self-reliance does not connotes self-centred systems; rather it encompasses a concern for the whole world’s happiness, cooperation and peace. The stated aim is to make the country and its citizens independent and self-reliant in all senses. The five primary focus area identified to achieve the objective of self-reliance are — Economy — Quantum jumps in various growth parameters, not just incremental changes. Infrastructure — Building infrastructure that represents modern India. Systems — Making systems technology driven. Demography — Making the population vibrant. Demand — Realizing full potential of the power of demand. A number of programs, schemes and incentives have been announced in past one year under the umbrella of Self-Reliant India, encompassing support to a variety of sectors like ag...

In an interview with the Manchester Guardian in 1965, the then foreign minister of Pakistan Zulfikar Ali Bhutto famously said, “If India builds the bomb, we will eat grass or leaves, even go hungry, but we will get one of our own. We have no alternative.” The world has seen how Pakistan has built the nuclear bomb and what cost its citizens have paid for the toy that will perhaps never be unboxed. It may be argued that the nuclear arsenal build by Pakistan and India has created a strong enough deterrence for any war between the two countries. Regardless, we had a war in Kargil (1999) and significant rise in the violence in the Kashmir Valley and along the line of control (LoC) since both countries declared themselves to be the nuclear powers in 1998. India has struck twice deep into PoK and changed the status quo materially in J&K in past 5 years. Many soldiers and civilian die every year on the both sides of LoC; and Pakistan economy is surviving on the IMF support. Bhut...