Uncertainty is now a standing condition of the global economy and policy must be designed around it, Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Saturday, adding that national security requires structural autonomy in strategic inputs and robust, economical supply chains that replace fragile single-source dependencies with domestic operational depth.
Global uncertainty requires a new policy approach
The evidence of resilience lies largely in the counterfactual, in the outcomes that did not materialise — an inflation spiral that did not take hold, queues that did not form at fuel outlets, banking stress that did not surface and a fiscal correction that was never forced. “A price shock can be cushioned with monetary and fiscal tools. The Indian economy has endured sustained global headwinds as the government consciously built a resilient system layer by layer from 2014, Sitharaman said, adding that India remains the fastest-growing major economy in the world, with retail inflation range-bound and no deviation from fiscal prudence. The conclave is named after Kautilya, who she said wrote the world’s earliest treatise on economic policy and statecraft 2,300 years ago. India withstood the global headwinds on the strength of its economic fundamentals even as global public debt rose to nearly 94% of GDP in 2025 and is projected to reach 100% by 2029, a level previously seen only after the Second World War, she said, citing the IMF’s April report.
Because it is not a one-time exercise, she said, citing the National Critical Mineral Mission, the Rare Earth Corridors, the India Semiconductor Mission 2.0 and small modular reactors (SMRs) as policy responses to impending challenges, india needs to keep building resilience as it goes along. But a quantity shock tests buffer stocks and the reach of delivery systems, and therefore the capacity of the state itself,” she said.
Speaking at the Kautilya Economic Conclave in New Delhi on the theme “Resilience in an Age of Flux”, she said: “Resilience is the capacity to absorb a shock without losing the growth path, and to retain the policy space to meet the next shock when it arrives. India came through this “remarkably well with its fundamentals intact and strengthening”, the minister said.
