A push for strategic resilience

The Economic Survey’s emphasis on Swadeshi as a disciplined strategy is correct, as not all import substitution is either feasible or desirable

- SOUMYA KANTI GHOSH

THE ECONOMIC SURVEY for 2025-26 comes against a backdrop of the US making an all-out wager to attain global supremacy amidst the crumbling pillars of globalisation, and a rekindled strategic positioning that boosts the defence of critical minerals to chart new trade ways even as the rules-based order essentially stares at an untimely obituary. In such tectonic upheavals, asset classes are spiralling, and the bruised tenets of economics are wobbling with a fractured neo-geo-real politicism (a fragmented new world order, and the realpolitik behind its curtains) as a tilt towards real assets trumps virtual ones.

Subsequently, the Survey points to a future that may look like the yesteryears but more fragile and less secure. This calls for greater hyper-vigilance and more pragmatic policies that ensure stability of supply and creation of optimal resource buffers.

The Economic Survey spans 739 pages, divided into 16 chapters. It covers almost all areas of interest ranging from agriculture to artificial intelligence (AI), industry to import substitution, and services to skill development. This time, the report breaks with precedent and arranges chapters based on national priorities, with three special essays on topics of mediumto long-term interest on AI, the challenges for quality of life in Indian cities, and the roles of state capacity and the private sector (including households) in achieving strategic resilience and strategic indispensability.