Make in India: Evaluating Progress Towards a Self-Reliant Viksit Bharat and the Road Ahead

Abstract

With the aim of promoting innovation and facilitating investment for the establishment ofrobust industrial infrastructure, Make in India, initiative led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, aims to revolutionize the Indian economy and establish it as a global manufacturing center. Launched on September 25th, 2014, we can proudly say this initiative has completed ten years and has become a successful and powerful movement, marked as a crucial step in nation-building. Key objectives of Make in India initiative include fostering a business-friendly environment, encouraging domestic, foreign investment, strengthening the manufacturing base in targeted sectors, and ensuring environmentally sustainable economy , through public-private partnership . In a very short span of time , results were visible in the areas of foreign direct investment, joint ventures and promotion of ease of doing business. The scheme focused on accelerating economic growth, as the mission to achieve global competitiveness and make the fastest-growing economy.
The prominent sectors targeted include automobiles, aviation, tourism, hospitality, and the manufacturing sector. Make in India became a collaborative effort among various stakeholders – the manufacturing sector as well as the Department of Commerce under Ministry of Commerce and domestic and foreign Industry. All this happened as the focus was on new processes, new infrastructure, new sectors, new policy initiatives and a new mindset which are known as the pillars of Make in India. These initiatives have resulted in developing comprehensive and integrated industrial ecosystem. Efforts have also been focused on developing indigenous raw materials to replace imports. The aim is to create a long-term, sustainable ecosystem with new ideas and design and development in manufacturing. The result of these initiatives will be the growth of Indian-origin products, supported by foreign investment, which will flourish globally. Not only will this reduce the import dependency, but it will also increase exports, resulting in the overall growth of the economy and a self-reliant Viksit Bharat.