As the prime minister vowed to make India Self-Reliant, ‘आत्मनिर्भरता’ is suddenly the new buzzword. Or may be not so new. We have in the past either heard its glorification or have ourselves indulged in advocating it . Who doesn’t like to be self-sufficient and live with dignity after all? Individuals and states alike, aim to achieve this not-so-bad-thing to have. But wait, have we correctly understood what it truly means to be self-reliant. Going by the dictionary style definition, it is the ‘reliance on internal resources to provide life with coherence and fulfillment (Baumeister)’. In the context of a nation, it may imply that if its citizens collectively produce goods and services of value greater than or equal to what they consume, the country is self-sufficient. But it is certainly not to infer that a country needs to produce every product and service it wishes to consume. Rather, in an exchange economy, everyone produces and sells limited products which they are good ...