‘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.

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.