Why India Must Stop Soothing Itself and Start Mobilising

“Clarity, urgency, and an outcome-driven plan can unite India’s stakeholders to cross the line from potential to global leadership.”

By Ravishankar Kalyanasundaram

When Singapore faces a crisis, its Prime Minister stands before the nation and says, “We must brace ourselves for a rough ride ahead.”

When Japan faces a trade shock, its leaders tell industries, “We cannot and will not stand by.”

When China faces tariffs, the Premier declares, “The challenge is real — so must be our resolve.”

And when India faces the same? We say, “No problem.”

That is not leadership. That is sedation.

A Tale of Two Reactions

In 2009, during the global financial crisis, Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong addressed the nation in plain terms:

“We must brace ourselves for a rough ride ahead. The world will not do us any favours; we must help ourselves.”

Look at Singapore. Its economic rise wasn’t a miracle — it was a method. Step inside IE Singapore in its prime and you wouldn’t see dusty files; you’d hear phones ringing with follow-up calls to exporters, see trade officers marking deadlines on whiteboards, and watch market reports being emailed to companies that hadn’t even asked yet. If you made plastic mouldings, they’d tell you where in Africa demand was rising. If you exported spices, they’d hand you a buyer list in Europe — with the shipping rules already explained. Every company had a guide, a checklist, and a call from the government asking, “What’s the status? What do you need to move faster?” Singapore’s leaders didn’t just say “No problem”; they engineered the absence of a problem.

The Discipline of Competition

Japan’s story was forged in a different furnace. Rising from the ashes of World War II, its government and industry moved in lockstep under one blunt message: survival depends on outcompeting the world. Policies didn’t shield industries; they tested them. Automakers fought each other in domestic showrooms before facing a single foreign buyer. The famous Lexus debate inside Toyota wasn’t whether to make a luxury car, but whether to make ”a Rolls-Royce at a Toyota price or a Toyota with Rolls-Royce features.” The answer was both. That is how you prepare companies like soldiers for the global battlefield — drilling, testing, sharpening — until they can plant their flag in markets from New York to Nairobi.

Turning Tariffs into Transformation

Germany’s Wirtschaftswunder, China’s WTO leap, and the UK’s export financing arm all share the same discipline: brief the ones who matter. Farmers, exporters, bankers, logistics providers, regulators — each is told exactly where the threat lies, what the counter-move is, and how their role fits into victory.

China’s leaders have made a habit of turning economic headwinds into national sprints. During the 2018 tariff war, President Xi Jinping told the Boao Forum:

“We must open wider, compete harder, and innovate faster. The challenge is real — so must be our resolve.”

Even Canada and Mexico, during the NAFTA renegotiations, mobilised instead of moping. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stood with steelworkers and said:

“We will stand up for you at the table, but we need to be stronger at home, too.”

These are not press-meet soundbites; they are field orders. And the outcome is never “we hope it works” — it is “we will make it work, and here’s the timetable.”

India’s Comfort Reflex

And here we are in India, 2025. Faced with tariff threats, our public conversation is dominated by forecasts of losses, closures, and bank stress. Instead of a plan, we hear platitudes. Instead of mobilisation, we have “No Problem.” The unspoken message to farmers and exporters is: sit tight and hope.

Where is the call to India’s industry captains — not for a ceremonial roundtable, but for a real war council to plot the counterattack?

Where is the NITI Aayog-led emergency session that brings ministries, states, and sector experts into one room until a roadmap is on the table?
Where are the Chambers of Commerce strategy meets that end not with handshakes and photographs, but with deadlines, deliverables, and a list of who does what by when?

If they’ve happened at all, they’ve left no visible trail of action — no timelines, no targets, no war-room momentum.

Our leaders should be walking into APEDA offices, Customs halls, and state agriculture boards, telling them: “This is your front. Here’s your role. The world will not wait, and neither will we.” The task is to make products so competitive that tariffs become incidental — an obstacle we step over, not one we trip on.

The Language of Mobilisation – Closing Call

History remembers leaders who turned adversity into mobilisation. In Britain’s darkest hour, Winston Churchill told his people:

“We shall fight on the beaches… we shall never surrender.”

Lee Kuan Yew told Singaporeans:

“We are in a permanent state of siege. Only by being exceptional can we survive.”

Churchill later reflected that Britain had “mobilised the English language and sent it into battle.” India, in 2025, must do the same — not with words of denial, but with the language of mobilisation.

From Scarcity to Surplus — India’s Moment to Move, Win, and Lead

The world needs food — we have it in abundance. The world needs cloth — we have mills and looms that can clothe continents. Few nations can build a car from scratch — we have an auto industry that rivals the best. Drought and scarcity are our past history and today we are on the edge of abundance. Awareness, motivation, co-ordination and the last-mile push are the needs to turn this advantage to cross the line. This is not a time to hide behind soothing words; it is the moment for government, industry, and every economic agency to move as one. The farmer in the field, the exporter at the dock, the engineer on the shop floor — all must feel the hand of leadership on their shoulder and the clarity of purpose in their task. When we know the world’s needs and know we can meet them, there is no excuse for hesitation.

Let us do it — not tomorrow, not after another press meet, but now.