A string of measures to bolster ease of doing business, zero tolerance for corruption and the focused effort on emerging sectors like electronics have helped promote ‘Make In India’ and boost both domestic and foreign investments in the country, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said.
“We have achieved great success and a brilliant future is ahead for manufacturing in the country as the ‘Make in India’ programme is celebrating its 10 years,” he said, as reported by PTI.
The ‘Make in India’ initiative was launched on September 25, 2014 to augment investment, innovation, infrastructure and make India a hub for manufacturing and innovation.
The minister told PTI, “We are seeing very big investment plans on the anvil which will create millions of jobs and expand our manufacturing contribution to the economy.”
On the back of steps such as digitisation and simplifying procedures, India’s rank in the ease of doing business climbed 14 rungs to 63 among 190 countries.
“Zero tolerance for corruption, and the focused effort on emerging sectors for promoting Make in India ignited the investments both domestically and internationally,” Goyal said.
“And 10 years later, we are both redeemed by the results and excited about the future. In many areas, we have seen significant progress like in mobiles, we are now world’s second largest manufacturers with production going on from only two factories to 200 in this field,” he added.
“We had an initial year, where the mood of the investing community was low. But our efforts bore fruit in terms of improving the macroeconomic fundamentals of the economy, improving the investment climate, facilitating investors and manufacturers because of which now we are seeing significant uptake,” Goyal noted.
The minister expressed confidence that with the increasing momentum seen under the Make in India programme, “we believe that the share of manufacturing will also start increasing in the coming years.”
Over the last 10 financial years, FDI inflow has increased by 119 per cent reaching USD 667 billion, compared to USD 304 billion in the previous 10 years (2005-14), with over 90 per cent of total FDI received through the automatic route. In 2020, the government rolled out the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Schemes for a number of sectors to provide financial incentives to enhance domestic manufacturing. The scheme has attracted substantial investments in key sectors such as electronics, and pharmaceuticals.
The other measures include national logistics policy, national single window system, Jan Vishwas (Amendment of Provisions) and law to decriminalize 183 provisions in 42 legislations. On the infrastructure front, the government focused on developing industrial corridors and smart cities, integrating state-of-the-art technology and high-speed communication to create world-class infrastructure.
Innovation and research were supported through streamlined registration systems and improved intellectual property rights (IPR) infrastructure. Efforts were made to identify industry skill requirements and develop the workforce accordingly.