FROM ARTHASHASTRA TO ATMANIRBHAR AND VIKSIT BHARAT: A CONTINUUM OF INDIAN ECONOMIC THOUGHT TOWARDS ACHIEVING THE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS

The Arthashastra, authored by profound strategist, economist and philosopher Kautilya (popularly known asChanakya), is one of the most significant and noteworthy text that the Indian history and tradition has everwitnessed. It is one of the most prominent vintage text that concerns with the fields of politics, administration,economics and philosophy. The insights from the Arthashastra effortlessly withstands the test of time andhaven’t lost their relevance till day, with its lesson being implemented, still forges excellence. Moderneconomies from across the world faces several bottlenecks in their policies and it is a prominent challenge tocut-off the perfect balance of achieving fast-paced development but simultaneously accompanied bysustainability. The study converges upon the prominent lessons drawn explicitly from the Arthashastra itself,specifically focusing upon the economic aspects, from which inspiration can be drawn to craft contemporaryand modern economic policy frameworks so as to facilitate the achievement of the global sustainabledevelopment goals in the domestic level. The chief area of focus lies upon the aspects concerning efficientfinancial decentralization, efficient market control, ideal interest framework, advocation of an ethical andvirtuous financial system and efficient revenue mobilization. These principles incorporated in theArthashastra provides a vivid blueprint of ideal economic policy frameworks, which if implemented hasimmense potential to facilitate and fuel the progression towards the attainment of Sustainable developmentGoals (SDGs) and crave a smooth pathway to simultaneously achieve the Indian dream of Viksit Bharatfuelled by Self-reliance (Atmanirbharta). Thus, this study makes an attempt to evaluate the lessons from theArthashastra and their suitability of being implemented in a modern economic framework to facilitate theachievement of Atmanirbhar Bharat and SDGs.