‘Make in India a great initiative’
Sumedh Singh Mandla, CEO, Grover Zampa Vineyards Ltd
(Chairperson of the session)
Make in India is the current government’s flagship initiative, launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in September 2014. The idea was to make India a renowned manufacturing
hub because the agriculture and service sectors in India have grown much faster than the manufacturing sector. In the last couple of decades, the agriculture growth was about 28% and
the service sector has grown by 56% in contrast to the 16% growth of the manufacturing sector.
Make in India is a great initiative to upgrade manufacturing and create a new hub for the Indian economy. Another important objective is to create job opportunities for the Indian talent and skilled manpower. The target was to create 10 million jobs by accelerating economic development and boosting trade and GDP.
India also wants to get global recognition as a business destination by increasing the ease of doing business. Lots of people are scared to enter the Indian market because we are a big country. Besides, government policies are not easy to understand; markets too are very difficult to understand. Now the government is trying to ensure that it becomes easy to do business in India, and the Indian manufacturers are able to sell their products worldwide.
After the launch of Make in India, the government facilitated a single window clearance for new projects. This is something which has really helped lots of people to come forward and sign new agreements. International business houses are being encouraged to produce in any segment in India and also roll out exports from the country. About 25 sectors are included in this programme. In these sectors, tourism and hospitality is a good opportunity for the wine sector.
Lots of Indian and foreign multinationals have participated in the Make in India campaign. Many of them have pledged lots of money in various states and markets. States, especially Maharashtra, Karnataka and Gujarat, are aggressively inviting international companies to be part of the Make in India campaign.
The Centre says MoUs worth Rs 21400 crores were signed during a week-long promotion of this campaign, which was a big achievement. Among the participating countries, notable
presence was of Germany, Russia and China. So Make in India has created a very open format where India has been marketed quite well. What we need to see now is whether our policies are sufficient to ensure that the new projects move forward. Some of the projects have moved forward but lots of them have still not taken off.