‘Aatmanirbharta’ implying self-reliance has been named by Oxford Languages as its Hindi word of the year 2020 as it ‘validated the day-to-day achievements of the countless Indians who dealt with and survived the perils of a pandemic’. The word was chosen by an advisory panel of language experts Kritika Agrawal, Poonam Nigam Sahay and Imogen Foxell.
The Oxford Hindi word of the year is a word or expression that is chosen to reflect the ethos, mood, or preoccupations of the passing year, and have lasting potential as a term of cultural significance. In a statement, Oxford Languages said in the early months of the pandemic when Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced India’s COVID-19 recovery package, he emphasised the need to become self-reliant as a country, as an economy, as a society and as individuals, in a bid to navigate the perils of the pandemic. There was a massive increase in the usage of ‘Aatmanirbharta’ following the prime minister’s address, highlighting its increased prominence as a phrase and concept in the public lexicon of India, it said.
One of many standout successes of all the ‘Aatmanirbhar‘ Bharat or self-reliant India marketing campaign is the large-scale manufacturing of COVID-19 vaccine in India. In the course of the Republic Day parade, the Division of Biotechnology highlighted the ‘Aatmanirbhar‘ Bharat marketing campaign and showcased the COVID-19 vaccine growth course of in its tableau at Rajpath.
