The challenge before India in the post-pandemic world is to create capacities to deal with unexpected and catastrophic events and be able to re-purpose organisations at short notice to deal with the challenges, Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla has said.

The rise of China, too, has placed India in a central role at the geopolitical stage as it is India’s largest neighbour and one with which it shares more than just a border and proximity, Shringla said at a dialogue on “India’s Foreign Policy in the post-Covid World: New Vulnerabilities, New Opportunities”, organised by the Public Affairs Forum of India on Friday.

“Today’s (diplomatic operating) environment is highly complex, multi-layered and multi-dimensional. Binaries and simple equations have been, to use an analogy, replaced by complicated algorithms. We must, in an environment such as this, build the capacities that allow us to maintain decisional autonomy,” he said.

We have to be able to re-purpose organisations as existing hierarchies and structures are often unable to cope with such challenges and may require re-engineering, the Foreign Secretary added.

‘Time of opportunities’

Over the last few months, India struggled to cope with the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic as its hospitals ran out of oxygen and beds. A number of countries across the world sent relief material to India in various forms ranging from oxygen related equipment to testing machines and kits to help it cope with the crisis.

“India received extensive support and assistance from its partner countries around the world during the second wave. This reflected the goodwill earned by India for the assistance extended by it to other countries when they needed it. The Covid cell within MEA handled the complexities associated with the delivery of foreign support,” Shringla said.

It is also a time of opportunities for India in areas such as the knowledge economy, de-risking and diversification of supply chains and climate change. “A country like India with its emphasis on education and innovation is well placed to take advantage of this transformation.”

The big opportunity for India lay in the requirement of de-risking and diversifying supply chains. “I have spoken earlier of the requirement for trust and transparency. Businesses are trying to create secure and stable supply chains that will be able to deal with pandemic level shocks. A number of conversations, such as the joint India-Australia-Japan Supply Chain Resilience Initiative, are taking place. The first Quad Leaders Virtual Summit in March discussed supply chain resilience,” he said.

Climate change is one of the defining challenges of our time and India is amongst the front rank of nations with climate ambition, the FS said outlining a third opportunity. “Despite our development challenges, we have taken major initiatives in the areas of clean energy, energy efficiency, afforestation and bio-diversity,” he said.

comment COMMENT NOW