India is the world’s most populous country, consisting of more than 1.428 billion people, placing India at the top of the population quantity list as of 2023 until now[1]. As a country that has a large population, India itself has a lot of “homework” on how to bring prosperity to all these people pursued by the central government. Under the current leadership, India is led by Narendra Modi as prime minister who has served in this country since 2014.
India is one of the countries that has a great existence in this world, through technology and all the advantages it has made India transform into a new source of power in Asia and the world. Before Modi’s leadership, India had joined BRICS, an international economic organization consisting of five superior countries in the world. India’s joining BRICS had a significant impact in terms of India’s own domestic economic progress. Under Modi’s leadership, India is known as a country that is very open to all forms of cooperation and joins some of international organizations in an effort to increase all forms of progress opportunities that can be taken from these various ways.
During the leadership of Narendra Modi, India has issued many policies both nationally and internationally. Such as foreign policy, namely withdrawing as a member of RCEP (Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership); RCEP is an economic partnership of 10 ASEAN member countries with several partner countries. India sees RCEP as not a very profitable platform. On the one hand, India joined the IPEF (Indo-Pacific Economic Framework) as an effort to intensify more profitable trade cooperation. While in domestic policy, India presents the “Made in India” and “Digital India” policies as an effort to improve the quality of resources in an effort to improve their economy. In these various policies, the author agrees with all forms of policies that Narendra Modi presents through the sorting of organizations followed and policies to improve the quality of resources given that we as a country have full authority to sort out policies that are in accordance with the circumstances and capabilities of own country.
The study of International Relations has various perspectives that can be used as tools to examine an international phenomenon, in this case the perspective take is Institutional Neoliberalism. Institutional Neoliberalism is a perspective that believes in the power of international institutions to enhance and help opportunities for cooperation between states. The perspective itself focuses on the interests of the institutions present in the world and the functions they establish, and this will turn to the interests of the state as a vital actor in the study of International Relations. Institutional Neoliberalism as a theory is concerned with the extent to which the international system in institutionalized, especially the factors that are able to explain the processes of institutionalization. Institutional Neoliberalism is a theory that departs from the global systematics present in this world and the implications for the pluralism of actors in the study of International Relations, such as: The state, Bureaucracy, Intergovernmental Organization, Non-governmental Organization, and others[2].
India’s Policies
One of India’s domestic policies issued by Narendra Modi is “Make in India”. “Make in India” is a program launched by Modi with a focus on increasing manufacturing and facilitating leading global investors to invest in strategic sectors in India with relatively easy bureaucracy. The program itself is expected to increase the talent of Indian workers in improving the quality of their work in various fields[3]. In 2017, since the three years of the “Make in India” program was launched, the program has had a good impact on the economic growth of the Indian State. According to World Bank data in the assessment of ease of doing business, India experienced a jump in ranking where in 2014 it ranked 142 to 100 in 2017. In 2015 this program had an impact on the increase in the flow of investment funds worth $63 billion into India[4]. In this relatively short development, it can be seen that the “Make in India” program has an impact on improving several sectors which certainly benefits the Indian State itself.
Another domestic policy issued by Narendra Modi is Digital India. Digital India is a program published by Narendra Modi in 2015, this program focuses on achieving the vision of empowering digital society and understanding the economy in each individual. In this Digital India program, there are 3 focus areas pursued by the Government of India, including: Digital infrastructure as a utility for every citizen, Governance & on-demand services, Digital citizen empowerment. The Digital India program is expected to be able to connect people on a social and non-agricultural economic scale, and can facilitate investors in an effort to increase the ease of digital transformation in the form of economic activities they focus on[5].
The two domestic policies issued by Narendra Modi are fairly bold and measured steps, this is based on the relatively fast development of the world today and the effort to fully utilize all forms of potential that a country has. The “Make in India” program launched by Modi has a very complex and directed goal, increasing manufacturing as a way to support incoming investors is a fairly appropriate step considering that investors certainly need supporting facilities and infrastructure to optimize all forms of economic activity carried out in a country. While other programs, namely Digital India, are fairly smart programs, where in this modern era digitalization is the key to the effectiveness and efficiency of life for all groups. Another point that is considered smart is the effort to ease the bureaucracy for foreign investors to enter and invest their capital in the State of India. Easy bureaucracy is certainly the key to how investors can freely develop without any difficult limitations from the government as a provider of supporting resources in the country.
On the other hand, as head of government, Narendra Modi issued various forms of foreign policy in the focus of improving the economic sector of the Indian State. The phenomenon of foreign policy will be examined through the perspective of Institutional Neoliberalism, how Institutional Neoliberalism sees peace in the world is born through cooperation and international organizations. The policy issued is joining the IPEF. IPEF is an international organization of 14 countries in the Asia Pacific region. IPEF has 4 organizational focuses, namely: Trade, Supply Chain, Clean Economy, Transparency. The factors that led to India joining IPEF include: Favorable features, Narrative that IPEF is an economic cooperation without any influence of China, Relevant to various economic policies of the Government of India[6]. IPEF as an economic cooperation organization has points that are felt to be in line with the Government of India, this is what sparked India’s desire to join it.
Another foreign policy, issued by Narendra Modi is India’s exit from RCEP. RCEP is a free trade agreement that consists of 10 ASEAN countries with 5 partner countries (Australia, China, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand). India initially had an interest in joining RCEP but this plan failed, after in 2019 India officially refused to join on the basis of several factors. The reason for India to withdraw from RCEP membership is because the Government of India considers RCEP is not a very profitable platform. India itself already has a trade deficit with 11 of the 15 RCEP members which certainly will not benefit India fully. On the other hand, India sees the RCEP partnership as not very profitable because most RCEP partners already have low tariffs and this will not have a major impact on India’s economic progress[7].
Arguments
From the two phenomena, it can be seen that India has its own calculations in taking steps to join or not join an international organization. The author’s see the steps taken by India are fairly precise with the portion of its own country, the presence of cooperation with member countries that are considered less commensurate will certainly not always have a profit impact but can even have an impact on losses. India, which has now become a major world economic power, certainly has the opportunity to show the world how India acts in the global arena in sorting out the opportunities for cooperation that are present in this world. Since 2014 until now, Narendra Modi has issued various forms of policies both domestically and abroad that focus on improving the economy of the Indian State. With the advantage of a large population and a lot of natural resources, the Government of India certainly has a great responsibility to optimize the advantages that they have.
In the opinion of the author, Narendra Modi’s “Make in India” and Digital India policies as an effort to encourage investors to invest in India is a brilliant idea considering that encouraging investment activities is another way to increase economic growth in a country. Improving manufacturing and easing the bureaucracy to invest is the focus of Modi’s domestic program, and it is a great idea as evidenced by the increasing number of investors investing in India. The Digital India program’s pursuit of digital understanding for all people in this era of globalization also has a great impact in terms of instilling knowledge that is very relevant in this era so that people can participate and understand the advantages of digitalization.
As for foreign policy, Narendra Modi issued a decision to join the IPEF as an effort to expand the network of cooperation with developed and developing countries with a vision and mission that is relevant to the Indian State. India’s joining the IPEF itself is based on Narendra Modi who sees the focus of IPEF’s goals as being in line with India’s economic progress. On the other hand, there is also a foreign policy issued by Narendra Modi, namely the policy to withdraw from RCEP membership due to the lack of RCEP benefits for India’s economic progress, as well as India’s efforts not to intersect with the influence of China’s economic cooperation considering that China is India’s big rival in spreading its influence in the Asian Continent. From this phenomenon, it can be seen how India tries to filter membership in an international organization in order to optimize all the benefits that the organization can provide to India.
India’s domestic and foreign policies are the right ones in this fast-paced world. Accelerating manufacturing development as well as easy investment bureaucratic policies and membership policies for international organizations focusing on the benefits that can be provided are the focus of the policies presented by Narendra Modi. With a policy that is right on target, of course, it is expected to be able to provide benefits for India and this shows that where the present policy of the Government of India is in line with the perspective of Institutional Neoliberalism.
[1] World Bank Open Data, accessed on October 24, 2024 via https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.POP.TOTL
[2] Robert O Keohane. International Institutional Institutions and State Power: Essay in International Relations Theory. (Boulder: Westview Press, 1989), page 2
[3] Indian Brand Equity Foundation. (2021). Introduction Make in India. Diakses pada 30 Mei 2024 dapat diakses di https://www.ibef.org/economy/make-in-india
[4] Fraser, Stephanie. (2018). What Has “Make in India” Made for India?. Diakses pada 30 Mei 2024 dapat diakses di https://www.asiapacific.ca/blog/what-has-make-india-made-india
[5] Tripathi, Meenal & Dungarwal, Monica. (2020). Digital India: Role in Development. Homesciencejournal. https://www.homesciencejournal.com/archives/2020/vol6issue2/PartG/6-2-72-511.pdf
[6] Gupta, S. India and the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework. East-West Center. p.1. 2022. http://www.jstor.org/stable/resrep42168
[7] Yadav, V., & Kirk, J. A. India’s Economic Policy Under Modi. In The Politics of India under Modi: An Introduction to India’s Democracy, Economy, and Foreign Policy. 4 (pp. 151-152). Lever Press. http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.3998/mpub.12847233.1
