~Shubhayan Goswami, Tanya Arora, Kritika Chauhan & Kirti
We humans that portray ‘normal’ human behaviour, often indulge ourselves in purchasing foreign goods due to the affordable prices, quality, etc. During this entire process, we usually, voluntarily or involuntarily ignore the goods produced within our country itself, the “local products” – which include the hard work and dedication of our fellow employees.
After experiencing the effects of the lockdown and the fall in India’s economy, many people have started supporting “Vocal for Local”. But what exactly is vocal for locals? It is a simple yet powerful statement used to raise voice and encourage people to purchase local products.
* Gross_domestic_product (GDP) – is the total market value of all the goods, products and services produced within a country in a specific duration of time. It is used to measure the size of an economy and overall growth or decline in the nation’s economy.
How can we the citizens of this country contribute to the upbringing of our nation’s economy? Why should we invest in local?
- If we invest our credit in our local market, then we as an individual can contribute our bits and pieces of taxes and profits to our government which can genuinely help to increase our country’s economy
- In our daily life, we listen about the economic crisis that daily wage workers and farmers face, so if we invest our money in local markets to indirectly help them.
How can our local investment help farmers and daily wage workers?
- It’s because if we invest our capital in locals, then our huge market would be in the hand of our own country, and the revenues coming from it would be in favour of our government.
- Since our government gets a profit out of the market, the economy of our nation goes up, leading to an increase in the country’s GDP and many other financial conditions.
- As the financial condition of the country goes up, the government can easily conduct programs like “100 days of work”, “Integrated Rural Development Program”, “ National Rural Employment Program (NREP)”, “Rural Landless Employment Guarantee Program (RLEGP)”, “Training of Rural Youth for Self-Employment” This way an individual investing in local directly serves for his/her nation and its economy.
Some of the companies that are exclusively made and grown in India are as follows:
- Health care providers – Apollo Hospitals, Dr Reddy’s Laboratories, Torrent Pharmaceuticals, Abbott, Sanofi India
- Consumer Products – Godrej Consumer, Dabur, Avenue Supermarts, Reliance
- Food Products -Amul, Haldiram’s, Parle, Organic India
- Electronics – BPL groups, all, Micromax informatics, Onida electronics
- Financial Services –Muthoot Finance, Indiabulls, HDFC, Power Finance Corporation
The “Self Reliance” of a country cannot be achieved just by the willingness of a few individuals or organisations. However, it can be achieved if & only if:
This will be a success if the businesses don’t move their funds to other countries. The citizens should invest them back in the same country.
It’s important to note that the consumer only looks at the quality of the product and does not actually care about other factors that restrict him from buying. So, one of the obvious ways is, by bettering the quality of the locally made goods.
People as citizens should consider their duty to pay complete taxes. This will help the government to set up an infrastructure that will help the country to develop.
There should be more & more Export Promotions.
Steps & measures to be taken to achieve it:
- Branding: Effective Branding and advertising techniques will help create a product image in the national and international market, eventually increasing demand. Attractive brand symbols, names and advertising methods would capture the attention of consumers
- FDI & SEZ: Facilitating Foreign direct investment (FDI) and creating Special economic zones (SEZ) will attract many business investors. It would help to increase manufacturing in India, giving rise to production activities, GDP etc.
- Export & Import process: Making the export process simple and increasing import duty will also encourage domestic production. The tax policies should be improved; various taxes imposed to discourage people set their enterprise.
Conclusion
Vocal for local focuses on increasing domestic demand and production. In the present time, when everyone is suffering due to Covid-19, domestic products have proven to be effective. With the economy facing the backlash due to the pandemic, we can do our part by sticking to the locally made goods, so the funds remain within our economy; let us work towards the betterment of our country together.
Must Read: https://skchildrenfoundation.org/rise-of-e-commerce-over-consumer-market/
