The RSS affiliated Swadeshi Jagran Manch (SJM) has said that though it is not clear if the economy has finally been able to tide over the negative impact of the Covid pandemic but there are indications to suggest that ‘the economy is getting back on track.’
“India will need to make a big push to become a ‘manufacturing hub’ in the world, turning the growing anger towards China around the world into an opportunity during the pandemic,” SJM co-convenor Ashwani Mahajan in an article published in the RSS mouthpiece Organiser said.
Mahajan pointed out that though the outlook of the economy on the manufacturing and job creation fronts looked better, it was too early to celebrate. He called for a ‘big push’ for India to become a global manufacturing hub.
“It can be assumed that due to the large increase in manufacturing in this quarter, the loss in employment and incomes will be compensated. But one cannot conclude from a quarter’s results that the economy has come out of the blues. It can be said that these results show that the economy is getting back on track,” the SJM leader wrote in the article published in the 19 September issue of the Organiser magazine.
Mahajan cited the jump in the GDP (26.5 percent compared to this quarter of last year), the industrial sector (49.6per cent), manufacturing (68.3 percent in construction), Mining (18.6 percent), and trade, hotels, transport, and communication services (34.3 percent) to counter the opposition argument that the jump was ‘due to low base effect, caused by a decline in GDP due to the shutdown of economic activities resulting from lockdown in the first quarter (April-June) of 2020-21 last year.’
“But even if we concede this argument of the opposition, it has to be accepted that the Indian economy is now coming out of the effects of the pandemic,” he said.
According to Mahajan, a professor at the Delhi University, all these figures show that in this quarter of last year, since economic activities were badly affected due to the lockdown, the growth of this quarter of 2021-22 clearly shows that it is not only making up for the decline of last year but also showing a sign of recovery of Covid hit the economy.”
The SJM leader underlined the need for cashing in on the anger of various counties of the world against China. He said that in the last two decades India’s manufacturing sector had been the victim of China’s unethical trade practices such as illegal export subsidies, under-invoicing, illegal dumping, etc. As a result, many industries were shut down leading to an increase in joblessness.
“During the Corona period, resentment towards China has also increased in the whole world, and there is an unprecedented desire for self-reliance in the countries of the whole world,” Ashwini Mahajan said, calling for converting this anger against China into opportunity.