The Centre is working on a ‘compliance report” of its flagship ‘Make In India’ (MII) initiative that attempts to transform India into a global design and manufacturing hub as well as generate large-scale employment.
The objective of the exercise, among other things, is to find out whether the government departments and agencies implementing the MII programme are meeting the deadlines envisaged in the ‘MII Action Plan’ of December 2014.
MII initiative
The MII initiative covers 25 focus sectors ranging from automobiles to wellness. The ‘MII Action Plan’ had set short-term (one year) and medium-term (three years) targets “to boost investments in the 25 sectors” and to “raise the contribution of the manufacturing sector to 25% of the GDP by 2020.”
At a national workshop held in December 2014 on these 25 sectors, an Action Plan was finalised with the help of Secretaries to the Indian Government as well as industry leaders.
As per the National Manufacturing Policy, “the share of manufacturing in India’s GDP has stagnated at 15%-16% since 1980 while the share of comparable economies in Asia is much higher at 25%-34%.”
Government sources said a detailed study is also being undertaken on the impact of the MII initiative including a sector-wise assessment regarding job creation and foreign direct investment inflows using the National Industrial Classification Code.
RBI, CSO data
Data from the Reserve Bank of India and the Central Statistics Office are also being looked into in this regard, they said, adding that inputs are being sought from the State governments as well.
The compliance report is being monitored and evaluated at the highest level, including by the Prime Minister’s Office, the sources said. Recently, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Commerce wanted an assessment to be done on how the MII initiative has helped the country’s micro, small and medium enterprises.
It recommended that dedicated steps should be taken to ensure that FDI promotes the MSME sector, and sought to know the factors behind the Foreign Portfolio Investments turning negative and its impact on the Indian industry. The panel also wanted to learn if the MII initiative has seized the opportunity of demographic dividend in the country.
$1 trillion by 2025
According to the India Brand Equity Foundation (IBEF), “India’s manufacturing sector has the potential to touch $1 trillion by 2025. There is potential for the sector to account for 25-30% of the country’s GDP and create up to 90 million domestic jobs by 2025.”
“FDI inflows in India’s manufacturing sector grew by 82% year-on-year to $16.13 billion during April-November 2016,” according to the IBEF, a trust formed by the Commerce Ministry to promote of the ‘Made in India’ label overseas.
It said, “The government has an ambitious plan to locally manufacture as many as 181 products. The move could help infrastructure sectors … that require large capital expenditure and revive the $27.75 billion Indian capital goods business.”
The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Commerce’s recent report had also said manufacturing growth in the country has to become robust, adding that “the manufacturing sector has grown only by an average of 1.6% in the last five years till 2015-16.” Underlining the importance of the capital goods sector for the country’s industrial growth, the panel said, “Appropriate measures may be taken to revive the growth of capital goods sector.”
A December 2016 a ‘policy brief’ prepared by K.S. Chalapati Rao, Professor (Retd.), Institute for Studies in Industrial Development, and Biswajit Dhar, Professor, Jawaharlal Nehru University, had suggested the examination of FDI in the 25 sectors under the MII initiative “from the points of (i) adding fresh domestic production capacities (including meaningful indigenisation), (ii) net addition to capital instead of round-tripping of funds remitted abroad on one pretext or the other, (iii) the monetary value of all the incentives and exemptions availed and (iv) ...delayed reporting and gross inaccuracies.”
