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Recently, Prime Minister urged people to support and spread the message of “Vocal for Local”
What is it?
- It means that products are made competitive vis-a-vis global brands. But it does not mean that one must only buy products that have a logo ‘made in India’ on it
- Government’s announcement to make ‘local companies global’ and to increase demand for locally manufactured goods, India’s digital industry is going to benefit from more Indian brands wanting to reach a wider audience.
- Vocal for local also aims to achieve ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’ (self-reliant India).
Idea behind it
- ‘Vocal for Local’ is a concept which dates back to the era of the Swadeshi movement which stared in 1905 as part of the Indian independence movement
- It was also Developed and promoted by Mahatma Gandhi
- As an economic strategy, it helped develop Indian nationalism at the time. After 1947, in the 1950s and 60s India followed a conscious, socialist pattern of development to create and grow a base of domestic big industry.
- However, this minimized competition and also encouraged protectionism.
- The era of the 1990s saw a liberalization of the economies across the world, including in India.
- This led to an infusion of FDI and big investments from MNCs and corporate houses and several joint ventures which made India very competitive.
- Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s latest slogan ‘Be vocal about local’ is built on both the reform agenda of Narasimha Rao and Vajpayee’s infrastructure focus to address a serious weakness in the India growth story ― low share of manufacturing in the country’s GDP vis-à-vis China.
Source: The Hindu & Times of India
