Make in India’ campaign was one of the most ambitious projects conceived by our Hon’ble Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The idea was to boost the manufacturing industry of the country by creating an effervescent environment for smooth functioning of businesses and enterprises. The concept was to intensify country’s Gross Domestic product (GDP) and escalate the tax revenues. A strenuous focus on the logistics, investor-friendly government policies & regulations in addition to fast feedback on the queries at all levels were major highlights of this much-hyped campaign.

Make In India- Snippets

‘Make in India’ envisioned India as a global design & manufacturing hub with a focus on 25 industry sectors like IT, Hospitality, textiles, bio technology, energy, aviation, mining etc. The objective of the campaign was to-

• Attract foreign investments
• Encourage innovation
• Focus on skill development
• Build state-of-the-art infrastructure
• Focus on labor intensive sectors to boost employment opportunities
• IP Protection
• Smooth functioning during the paper work (regulatory approvals, pre-post & follow up support)
• Auto response mechanism
• Preparing 100 smart cities
• 100 million jobs by 2022
• Bilateral ties with several nations

A Review

A review on the achievements and outcomes of this nationwide programme will let us understand the current status and indicators of the progress of the campaign.

 Foreign Direct Investments: Started off in September 2014, Make in India campaign was successful in grabbing eyeballs of the world’s top brands. The campaign allowed 49% & 100% FDI in defense sector and railway infrastructure respectively. There was a sudden hype in the initial months; a whopping $23.7 billion FDI was reported between October and May 2015 which was almost 40% raise. The total investments in the fiscal year was seven times more than the previous year i.e. $40.92 billion. Approximately 1.20 lakh crore proposals were received from companies interested in manufacturing electronics in India. In a nutshell, the FDI drastically improved (56% up) after the announcement of the campaign.

 Effects on Industrial Production: With hoopla around the campaign, the industrial production was expected to boost drastically. In spite of various efforts, the industrial production rose up to 2.7% from 0.6% during October- May 2015.

Ease of Doing Business: This was an important step to attract foreign investors in India. Various brands especially auto makers showed interest in setting up various R&D centers and offshore offices in India. BMW slashed the prices of various car models manufactured in India. Chinese telecom company, Huawei Technologies Co Ltd. invested Rs. $170 million to set up an R&D center in Bengaluru. Automobile giant Ford also invested 5,000 crores for an R&D center in Chennai.

Digital India: A great move to revamp the old system, digital system in railways, government offices, and educational institutions brought positive changes. Technology being the core of the Digital India project is expected to bring about 400,000 computer internet access point, and high speed internet in 2.5 lakh villages. Almost 20,000 gram panchayats were linked with Bharatnet.

Since, the campaign possess some crucial factors and projects that are beneficial in the long run, it is important to keep the buzz going. Digitization, improvement in the growth indicators, emphasis on localization and financial inclusion are some great ideas of the campaign. Continuous support from the state governments and a go ahead from common people will definitely make this campaign successful.