Rabindra got worried and asked, "Then what should we do? Don't we have a way out? If this continues, our country will never be able to stand in the global market."
"Well, don't worry, Mr. Rabindra. We will definitely remove the control of the License Raj, but in a different way." Aryan took out a document.
He asked the minister next to him to pass it to Rabindra.
Before reading the document, Ravindra asked; he wanted to hear the plan from Aryan's mouth.
"Sir, please explain more."
Aryan smiled slightly and explained:
"Good."
"The first plan would be industry."
"We will remove almost all licensing requirements for most industries."
The Minister of Industries, Ramesh Verma, said, "No, it's dangerous."
"Well, I know, Minister Ramesh." Aryan explained again, "We will not revoke the licenses of the entire industry. We will keep the licenses of defense, pharma, and chemicals as they are."
"But we will not place any license restrictions on Indian businesses."
"There is no minimum capital proof required, but proof of pollution clearance will be required."
Ravindra said, "Still, there is a problem. What will we do with the DGTD (Director General of Technical Development)?"
Aryan was stunned. He hadn't thought about this before.
But before he could say anything, Ramesh said, "We can't destroy DGTD, but we can merge DGTD into a monitoring body, and they will provide us with industry performance reviews..."
"Hey, Mr. Ramesh, you have a great head." Aryan laughed excitedly.
Then, all the ministers discussed this plan.
Rabindra calculated a little, and his face became serious again. "Sir, there is a problem."
"Oh. What's the problem?"
"We don't have enough money for this...we will have to borrow money from the IMF..." Rabindra flipped through several documents and said.
"No." Aryan's cry shocked everyone. Then Aryan realized he had lost control, so he apologized to everyone and said, "We can't borrow money from the IMF."
"Mr. Rabindra, you also know that once we come under the control of the IMF, we will not be able to get out easily. We will use NRIs."
"If we borrow money from the IMF, the value of our currency, the rupee, will fall a lot...it has fallen a lot since independence. I can't let the rupee fall anymore. Besides! The IMF won't just give us money. We have to keep our gold to them to get money..." Aryan's strong voice silenced the entire cabinet.
(Note: In 1947, the value of the Indian ₹ was $1=₹3.3, and in 1990, the value of the Indian ₹ was $1=₹17.1.)
Rabindra suddenly came to his senses and slapped his forehead, "Yes, how could I forget that?"
After thinking about it for a moment, he said:
"If we use RBI and SBI and come up with a scheme just for NRIs, and give them higher annual interest, then we can survive a lot..."
Aryan nodded his head and explained, "That's what I'm planning to do. We will pay interest of 5% to 10% per annum, much higher than in Western countries, 5-year maturity, anytime withdrawal, tax-free returns, and a guarantee from the Indian government!"
"Our current problem is that we need funds for the initial plan, and once we can raise funds and our plan is successful, we don't have to look back."
"We will also encourage NRIs to invest in Indian companies, real estate, startups, etc. We will also remove FERA (Foreign Exchange Regulation Act) restrictions and allow 100% repatriation of profits on NRI investments by launching some schemes like NRI Mutual Funds, etc."
"We can also offer dollar deposit accounts for NRIs in overseas Indian banks to strengthen forex reserves."
Then, Aryan and all the ministers discussed the matter.
"We will talk to NRIs directly and convince them."
After some discussion, everyone came to this decision, and Aryan said to Minister of External Affairs Rajendra Prasad Kamat, "Mr. Rajendra Prasad, I have entrusted you with preparing a complete report on this (NRIs) matter."
Rajendra Prasad Kamat agreed and said, "Okay."
"Mr. Ramesh, you are responsible for the license. You will make a list and show it to me within a week."
"Okay."
"..."
"The second plan is raw materials and machinery's tariff imports will be reduced from 100% to 150%, to 30% to 50%."
"We will divide it into three-year phases: the first year 30%, the second year 40%, and the third year 50%."
"However, we will only reduce this tariff on imports of raw materials, not on any finished products, such as cars."
"We will leave the tariff import reduction on finished products to time."
"However, since we want rapid development of the industry, we will reduce the import tariff from zero to 5% for some sectors such as electronics, computers, renewable energy, pharma, labs, machinery, etc."
Everyone fell silent and looked at Aryan as if they were seeing a ghost.
With a headache, he asked Ramesh, "Mr. Rabindra, I have made a plan, but I don't know how I will get out of the hands of foreign countries, who will take advantage of this low import tariff to kill our local industry."
"Haha! Mr. Prime Minister, your plan is great. With the new plan, we can attract foreign companies to our country very soon, and this plan will match your first plan very well." Rabindra laughed heartily and then said, "We will use ADDs (Anti-Dumping Duties), and if we form a Tariff Review Board, then we will not have to worry about damage to our local industry."
"Okay, I gave you this responsibility." Aryan's eyes lit up, and he said, "You make a plan and give me an answer in a week. The sooner we work, the sooner we'll see progress."
Aryan's mother is an education minister, but she said, "Aryan, you are thinking about imports but not exports? Although I don't understand economics well, I think if we only import, our foreign exchange reserves will be hit hard."
"Ummm...we can focus on export-oriented sectors like textiles, leather, gems, tea, pharma, etc." Ramesh thought a little after hearing Snigdha's words and then said again, "We will increase the number of EPZs (Export Processing Zones)."
"Yes, I am planning to upgrade the infrastructure of the previous EPZs and announce 10+ more EPZs." Aryan agreed with Ramesh and said.
"We will create a refund tariff system."
"If an exporter imports something at full tariff and then exports a finished product made from that imported material, the tariff on that imported material will be refunded when it exports the finished product."
Everyone stopped again after hearing Aryan's plan.
Aryan continued, "But for all this, we will need good modern ports, and we will upgrade some existing ports like Kolkata, Mumbai, and Chennai ports. We will have to build special import and export cargo trains that will be dedicated only to imports and exports, and we will have to build some air cargo hubs to trade high-quality goods like gems, software, etc."
"Captain Raghav Kaul, I have entrusted you with the responsibility of developing a plan to build and upgrade the ports." He told the Port Minister, Captain Raghav Kaul. Captain Raghav Kaul was a former Indian Navy Commander.
"Good." Captain Raghav Kaul nods his head.
Aryan said again:
"We will use our imports and exports to avoid forex strain. We will follow two methods to avoid forex strain."
"The first method is that we will trade entirely in Indian rupees. The only different case will be the USSR. We will trade 60% in Indian rupees and the remaining 40% in rubles to increase our relations with the USSR."
"The second method is that we will follow the ancient method."
"We will trade using the barter trade method. We will exchange good for good."
. . . . . . .