But the nation needs to move on, and find a way. One person who’s determined to defy the doomsayers is Union Cabinet Minister for Food Processing Harsimrat Kaur Badal. Buoyed by what has been a bumper harvest year, she feels that India can attract huge investments. Strategies to rope in more foreign capital into the sector are being ironed out. Currently, 100 percent FDI under automatic route is permitted for the food processing sector in India. Likewise, 100 percent FDI is allowed in trading and e-commerce of food items produced and manufactured in India. Export opportunities look bright too. In a recent interview to IANS, Minister Badal says, “The COVID-19 crisis opens up huge opportunities for Indian products to capture a major share of exports given the anti-China sentiments permeating global relations in trade.”

In the welter of distressing news comes another positive story—one that aligns with the Made in India mission. The Khadi and Village Industries Commission’s annual turnover has skyrocketed to Rs 88,887 crore in 2019-2020, a figure that the organization says “cannot be matched by any FMCG company.” According to the KVIC Chairman Vinai Kumar Saxena, khadi sales have jumped at a whopping annual rate of 27.6 percent during the NDA Government, distinctly superior from the 6.65 percent growth it logged between 2004 and 2014. He says that sales have gone up in the wake of PM Modi’s repeated appeals to adopt khadi as a way of life, especially in his radio address Mann ki Baat. Khadi nationalism has worked.