WION World Pulse | 'India must aim for self-reliance in critical sectors': Sanjeev Sanyal on changing world order

Sanjeev Sanyal, Member of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM), said at WION’s World Pulse summit on Wednesday (Mar 18) that the global economic order is undergoing a major transformation, with supply chains moving towards resilience and self-reliance. He also responded to a question on trust and geo-economics in the current global environment.

Sanyal was asked at WION’s World PULSE, "A lot of conversation around Geo-economics and kind of world we are living, kind of problem we are grappling with. In a trusted partnership, do we trust each other?"

He responded: "The global system, which was built in a certain architecture since the early 1990s, has clearly come to an end, there is no doubt about it. The global supply chain was built on the idea of 'just in time' efficacy. Now we are being re-configured towards a “just-in-case” approach. And that revival of the interest in the idea of resilient means that we have to think about, by the way we have been saying for India for some time, that we should strive for aatmanirbhar (self-reliance), especially in critical sectors. Wherever possible, we should aim to achieve self-reliance. While this may not be feasible for smaller countries like Singapore, a country of India’s size should try to do so in as many areas as possible."

India's multi-alignment approach

Sanyal emphasised the multi-alignment approach with different sources. He added that India has diversified its energy sources, including imports from Russia. The attitude towards the Gulf region in the recent developments shows that India’s diplomacy has been quite effective, he added.

"In areas where aatmanirbhar (self-reliance), we need a multi-alignment approach with multiple sources and partners. This is quite different from how we used to think about the world earlier. This shift in thinking began even before the COVID-19 crisis in 2019, but the pandemic accelerated it significantly, making the need for resilience more obvious. We are now seeing this play out, particularly in the energy sector.

"India has diversified its energy sources, including imports from Russia. Even within the Gulf, we have seen in the last few weeks that India's diplomacy has been able to extract our own ships. So this kind of attitude we have towards supply chain is playing out well for us, and given the circumstances, we are doing OK," he said.

Sanyal highlighted the evolving global economic landscape, where countries are increasingly prioritising resilience, diversification, and strategic autonomy in response to ongoing geopolitical and economic uncertainties.