There was not a doubt that the “Make in India” campaign launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi would be a roaring success. It was a curious coincidence that China announced a “Made in China” campaign the same day to incentivise high-tech imports and research and development to boost its manufacturing sector, which has seen some slackening in recent months. It is obvious that its move is in line with its border skirmishes — an irritant to keep India distracted.
Mr Modi’s government now has two challenges. One, to see that its administrative machinery at the Centre and in the states create a business-friendly environment, provide the infrastructure, make low-cost finance available, remove procedural and regulatory hurdles, etc. A business executive at the launch said he had to get 167 approvals to put up a new manufacturing plant in Pune! He is not the only one who has such problems. In fact, industry’s wish list at the launch was the same as it was during the earlier UPA regime.
The second challenge will be to face up to constant comparisons between the progress made in the “Make in India” and “Made in China” campaigns on manufacturing targets. If there were a hundred Modi clones, the end results would be guaranteed and manufacturing would have pride of place in the country’s GDP and exports. But, since that is not the case, Mr Modi will have to set up a monitoring team that will relentlessly track progress and see that the “Make in India” initiative works smoothly.
