Youth Incorporated Magazine

……and we definitely should take this chance. It’s been more than 5 years now that India is functioning under the rule of the Modi government and thus we all are familiar with our Prime Minister’s style of functioning. During this lockdown period, he has come up with yet another initiative to make our country atmanirbhar or self-reliant with the ‘Made In India’ initiative. While this initiative too, has sparked mixed reactions like always, we, the common people actually have got a fun chance to change our way of living a little and go all ‘desi’.

Under the Made In India initiative, Modiji has stressed on using products of the Indian origin. Since the time our Indian market opened up for the world, the influx and efflux of a huge amount of products brought about a massive change in our lifestyles. We started choosing skirts/pants over sarees/dhotis and burgers over dosas. The western culture seeped in almost every part of our lifestyle. Now, however, our leader has offered us to take on our original identity. 

Switching to desi products though seems like a difficult task, given that we are so used to using foreign brands, can actually make our lifestyle cooler and also sustainable. For starters, here is what you can do: 

Clothing Brands:

A khadi and cotton garment looks equally decent as any other garment. Even if you are not fond of cotton and khadi, there are many other Indian owned brands that offer fashion apparel similar to foreign brands. While Zara, GUCCI, Louis Vuitton are undoubtedly the best, there are other Indian clothing brands as well that manufacture equally stylish apparel. Some Indian clothing brands that you can switch to, include Louis Philippe, Allen Solly, Van Heusen, Peter England, Monte Carlo, Provogue, AND, Raymond, Spykar Jeans, Munich Polo, Flying Machine, Westside, Pantaloons, Nush, etc. 

If you are looking to ditch dresses, skirts, pants, blazers and go complete desi, you can always pick brands like Fab India, Biba, Global Desi, W, Manyavar. 

Perfumes and Deodorants

It’s best to cut down the use of deodorants for health reasons, but sometimes, it’s only a perfume or a deodorant that comes to our rescue. At such times, instead of picking the usual Chanel, try picking up Indian perfume and deodorant brands like Axe, Wild Stone, Setwet, Layer’r, Park Avenue, or Engage. 

Luxurious Beautycare and Health Products

There are a wide range of Indian beauty care brands that we can use. These companies too have a diverse range of products for different skin/hair types. These brands might be a little expensive, but it’s better to pay for brands that are of Indian origin rather than paying an extravagant amount for chemical-based foreign products. Some of the Indian beauty care products that you can use include, Kama Ayurveda Forest Essentials, Pahadi Local, Dr. Sheth’s, Purearth, and Himalaya Drug Company

Cosmetics

Changing your cosmetic brands will get very difficult especially for girls, but you can give it a shot. Lakme has been one of the oldest cosmetic brands in India, that not only offers a plethora of products but is also safe on skin. Other three brands that are absolutely fresh in the market and have received immense love and positive feedback are Nykaa, Kay Beauty, and MASABA. You can also switch to other Indian cosmetics brands which include Sugar,  Soul Tree (claims to be only Indian beauty brand that’s certified 100 percent natural by BDIH), Ruby’s Organics, Barva, VLCC, Elle 18, and Coloressence. 

This can be a good way to make the ‘Made In India’ initiative a success thereby helping India in becoming self-reliant. Supporting the ‘Made In India’ initiative doesn’t mean boycotting foreign brands, it merely means choosing Indian brands over foreign ones wherever you can to strengthen the Indian economy. As mentioned above, you can begin trying and switching to Indian products. We are sure, we’ll all get used to them sooner.