Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said uncertainty is no longer a temporary shock but a permanent feature of the global economy — and that policy must be built around it. "Uncertainty is now a standing condition of the global economy, and policy must be designed around it," she said on Friday while speaking at the Kautilya Economic Conclave 2026.
Resilience as policy
Sitharaman urged policymakers to build resilience around three pillars: strategic resource security, private investment in research and development, and diversified trade partnerships. Supply chains optimized purely for cost, she warned, create hidden vulnerabilities that surface in a crisis. She pointed to government initiatives including the National Critical Mineral Mission, Rare Earth Corridors and India Semiconductor Mission 2.0 as the architecture of that resilience.
The R&D gap
The minister laid out a stark number: India spends just 0.83 percent of GDP on R&D, against 2.7 percent for the OECD, and the private sector contributes only 36 percent of India's total research spending. The government's Rs 1 lakh crore Research, Development and Innovation Scheme is meant to change that — shifting the ambition from "Made in India" to "Imagined and Made in India."
On trade, Sitharaman said countries should rely on dialogue and negotiated agreements rather than letting geopolitical differences become barriers to trade and investment — a message aimed as much at the world as at home.
Sources:
The New Indian Express: 'Uncertainty is now a standing condition of the global economy and policy must be designed around it': FM Sitharaman
Resilience as policy
Sitharaman urged policymakers to build resilience around three pillars: strategic resource security, private investment in research and development, and diversified trade partnerships. Supply chains optimized purely for cost, she warned, create hidden vulnerabilities that surface in a crisis. She pointed to government initiatives including the National Critical Mineral Mission, Rare Earth Corridors and India Semiconductor Mission 2.0 as the architecture of that resilience.
The R&D gap
The minister laid out a stark number: India spends just 0.83 percent of GDP on R&D, against 2.7 percent for the OECD, and the private sector contributes only 36 percent of India's total research spending. The government's Rs 1 lakh crore Research, Development and Innovation Scheme is meant to change that — shifting the ambition from "Made in India" to "Imagined and Made in India."
On trade, Sitharaman said countries should rely on dialogue and negotiated agreements rather than letting geopolitical differences become barriers to trade and investment — a message aimed as much at the world as at home.
Sources:
The New Indian Express: 'Uncertainty is now a standing condition of the global economy and policy must be designed around it': FM Sitharaman
