‘Need to add security layer for supply chains’: EAM Jaishankar

MUMBAI:

External affairs minister S Jaishankar

on Friday said other countries buying into the “vote bank” narrative around the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) have also “used religion, language, or other attributes as a possible pathway to citizenship or immigration”. It’s the govt’s job to “communicate better and set out our narratives”, he added.

Responding to a question on CAA in a fireside chat at the ET Awards, Jaishankar said it was a consequence of Partition. “You have neighbours where minority numbers have gone down dramatically, and those people have to go somewhere, and in many cases, the nature of the faith is such that the only place they can go to is India,” he said.

Jaishankar also said that in the post-2016 era, trade was no longer solely a function of which country was most efficient. “Today, in many domains, you would put a certain

security layer

. There are many businesses where it might be more efficient to go there, but you don’t want to because there are many other implications, including security,” he said.
He emphasised that companies should not be insensitive to building their supply chain. “We can keep complaining that there’s one country, which accounts for 30% of manufacturing. But at some stage, we have to do something more than complain,” he said.

Besides security, Jaishankar highlighted socio-economic consequences, such as, hollowing out of industry seen in advanced economies and dampening of employment and innovation in budding industrial economies. He mentioned certain areas where transparency and trust were important, including telecom and anything digital.
Jaishankar cited new industries such as semiconductors, renewables, green clean tech, space and drones as areas that need a push. “You cannot be a major power without technology, and you cannot have technology without manufacturing.”