Why was it necessary for a developing country like India to follow self-reliance as a planning objective?

Self-reliance implies discouraging the imports of those goods that could be produced domestically. Achieving self-reliance is of prime importance for a developing country like India as otherwise it would increase the country’s dependence on foreign products. Dependence on foreign goods and services can promote economic growth of India but this would not contribute to the development of domestic productive resources. Dependence on foreign goods and services provides impetus to foreign countries’ industries at the cost of domestic infant industries. Further imports drain away the scarce foreign reserves that are of prime importance to any developing and underdeveloped economy. Therefore achieving self-reliance is an important objective for developing countries in order to avoid themselves from being acquiescent to the developed nations.