New Delhi. Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal on Tuesday said efforts to enhance ease of doing business, zero tolerance against corruption and focus on emerging sectors like electronics have helped promote ‘Make in India’ and attract domestic and foreign investments in the country.
He said, “We have achieved great success and there is a bright future for manufacturing in the country as the ‘Make in India’ programme celebrates its 10th anniversary.” The ‘Make in India’ initiative was launched on September 25, 2014 to facilitate investments, promote innovation, create world-class infrastructure and make India a hub of manufacturing, design and innovation. It is one of the ‘Vocal for Local’ initiatives that promoted the country’s manufacturing sector to the world.
Goyal told PTI, “We are working on very big investment plans which will create lakhs of jobs and expand our manufacturing contribution to the economy.” Recalling the journey of this initiative, the minister said the Narendra Modi government started with “very tough times” as the confidence in investment both domestically and internationally was very low in 2014 and the industry was not sure about the future.
He said the country’s image was poor internationally and it was placed among the five ‘fragile’ economies.
He said it took some time for this government to win the confidence of investors. Goyal said, “But under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, it happened very fast, because he took very bold decisions, whether it is One Nation One Tax i.e. ‘GST’, or IBC (Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code), or implementing a transparent process for auctioning of mines.” The minister said that the government also gave stable and favorable policies to investors, as well as a commitment to not make retrospective amendments.
Due to measures like digitisation and simplification of processes, India’s ranking in ease of doing business has jumped 14 places to 63rd position among 190 countries.
Goyal said, “A zero tolerance policy on corruption and a focused effort on emerging sectors to promote ‘Make in India’ has led to investments both domestically and internationally.” “…and 10 years later, we are both satisfied with the results and excited about the future. In many sectors, we have seen significant progress, such as in mobiles, we are now the world’s second largest manufacturer. Production in this sector has grown from just two factories to 200,” he added. In addition, sectors such as steel and cement generated demand due to a significant increase in infrastructure funding, leading to India seeing massive investments and growth in these sectors under the ‘Make in India’ programme.
Government initiatives in other sectors such as textiles, ceramics, toys, plastics, chemicals and pharma have enhanced domestic capacities to meet India’s needs and also helped boost the country’s exports which are set to reach an all-time high of $778 billion in 2023-24.