Making ‘Make In India' Work

To get investments to come in, we need to understand why investments go out

- R Srinivasan

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Make in India’ initiative, to my mind, has been one of the most significant, structured and outcome-oriented policy initiatives by any Indian government in recent years. It was, unlike many similar initiatives in the past, well structured, properly thought through, had an identified set of priorities (originally 16 sectors, now grown to 25) and focussed on the key issue dogging all inbound foreign direct investments in India — the ease (or rather, the lack of) doing business in India.

It was also particularly well-timed. The program itself was formally introduced on September 25, 2014, but Modi had outlined it a month earlier. In his first Independence Day speech on August 15, 2014, Modi said, “I want to tell the people of the whole world: Come, make in India. Come and manufacture in India. We have the skill, talent, discipline and the desire to do something. We want to give the world an opportunity that comes to make in India.”

The timing was near perfect. The Chinese growth engine had started slowing. Besides, new trade-related tensions between the world’s two biggest economies — the US and China — were giving jitters to investors worldwide. They were looking for a safe hedge bet against potential turmoil in their key manufacturing base, China. And Prime Minister Narendra Modi, with a strong, pro-business image, had just burst on the scene, talking the talk that investors love to hear, and what’s more having the absolute electoral mandate to enable him to walk the talk as well, without the many pressures of ‘coalition dharma’ which his predecessor had to face.