How is the concept of Atmanirbhar Bharat beneficial to the sustainability of India?

Recently, the country rejoiced at a preannouncement of stimulus package in response to the urgent COVID-19 situation in the country. The pandemic threw the entire nation into a downward spiral, all dimensions of the society, be it social, political or economic situations were drowning in an abyss of uncertainty. But following the examples of countries like the US, Canada, Germany, and Japan, on the 12th of May 2020, Indian Central Government declared the launch of “Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan”. This announcement opens a new damn of benefits to lower socio-economical strata of the society, MSME and other small businesses by drawing up to a whopping 10% from the current GDP. 

This political decision was definitely met with affirmative responses from most of the fellow Indians. But does this impact the sustainability goals that have been prioritized from 2018? Let us look at the social, economic and environmental impact of this grand scheme –

Economic Benefits:

1. All MSMEs will get a collateral-free loan of Rs 3 lakh crores — It will be instrumental in helping over 45 lakh units to restart work and save millions of jobs.
2. for micro food scheme, around Rs. 10,000 crores of the fund will be executed with a cluster-based approach, which will benefit over 2 lakh Micro Food Enterprises.
3. For investing in investment-grade debt paper of NBFCs, HFCs, and MFIs over Rs 30,000 crore special liquidity scheme will be dispatched. 

Social Benefits:

1. To facilitate decent work, skilling and job opportunities for locals, global tenders will be disallowed up to Rs 200 crore for government contracts
2. To provide food security and there is no hunger haunting the population, for next two months 5 kgs of wheat or rice per person, 1 kg channa per family per month will be provided through the state governments for migrants who don’t have the NFSA card or state cards. This is to cost up to 3000 crores and is to benefit 
3. Under a special scheme, Rs 10,000 of the loan will be granted to the street vendors to be availed from Rs 5,000 crore loan facility.

Environment Benefits:

1. One lakh crore fund for strengthening the farm gate infrastructure like cold chains, post-harvest storage infrastructures, etc.
2. To provide health and well-being through a carbon sink, Rs 4,000 crore for growing of herbal and medicinal plants. 10 lakh hectares of land is going to be used for growing medicinal and herbal plants and can provide an income of nearly Rs 5,000 crore for farmers.
3. The government is introducing the commercial mining of coal. India must reduce the import of substitutable coal and increase self-reliance in coal production. This will help in reducing the carbon footprint due to transportation and import.