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(GIST OF KURUKSHETRA) Leveraging Vocal for Local

(September-2023)

Leveraging Vocal for Local

Introduction:

The ‘vocal for local’ has become a focus of attention for policymakers, and India's policymaking is increasingly geared towards resuscitating economic growth and job creation through this strategy. Policies such as ‘Make in India’, ‘Start up India’, ‘Skill India’, ‘ease of doing business’, labour reforms, and so on are being initiated and adopted to boost the local or domestic economy. In addition to such efforts by the Central Government, individual states are also offering incentives and promotional measures towards a conducive investment climate to strengthen local economies.

The Rationale of Vocal for Local

The concept of ‘Vocal for Local’ saw a resurgence during a speech provided by our Hon’ble Prime Minister on 12 May 2020, which emphasised ‘Think Local Go Global’, self-sufficiency, and looking into our own neighbourhoods to create local goods with locally available resources. Of late, in the wake of pandemic led socio-economic crises, the term ‘vocal for local’ as an emerging development paradigm and a practice has gained currency in India’s development planning and policy.
The five pillars of the Self-reliant India Movement were economy, infrastructure, governing system, vibrant demography, and supply chain. An attempt has been made by various stakeholders, including central and state governments, NGO, and the corporate sector, to formulate different policies and schemes envisaging ‘vocal for local’ to address issues of rural transformation, inclusion, and steady recovery.
The larger goals are to promote the development of rural areas in tune with Gandhi’s vision of being self-sufficient and self-reliant, based on local resources and using decentralized, eco-friendly technologies so that the basic needs of food, clothing, shelter, sanitation, health care, energy, livelihood, transportation, and education are locally met, and the goals of faster and more inclusive growth are realised.

Framework to leverage ‘Vocal for Local’

The ‘Vocal for Local’ strategy could be an important ingredient of rural development policy to create healthy, environmentally resilient, and economically robust places. A comprehensive profiling or mapping of local resources and demand and supply at the village level should be the starting point of this strategy. The local economy needs to be strengthened by:

efficient planning practices with strong coordination among various line departments working in the rural areas;
skill and economic development planning covering the issues and opportunities for strengthening the local economy;
aligning local plan with national and sub-national development strategy;
local institutions, such as panchayats in coordination with other stakeholders creating a system of visiting local businesses periodically to discuss their needs, challenges, and opportunities and also helping both aspiring and existing enterprises to get benefits from schemes and programmes.

Conclusion:

The ‘Vocal for Local’ initiative has the potential to promote self-reliance, boost economic growth, create job opportunities, reduce dependence on imports, and provide a much-needed boost to small, micro, and SHG-based enterprises in the country. However, to leverage this strategy, we have to focus on: