 "Photo: Suryakant Niwate")
1) Make in India was launched on September 25, 2014, by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to encourage multinational as well as domestic companies to manufacture their products in India.
2) Vision: The initiative hopes to attract both capital and technological investment in India and that the country will become the top destination globally for foreign direct investment (FDI), surpassing even China and the United States.
3) Its logo –inspired by the Ashoka Chakra – is a striding lion made of cogs, symbolising manufacturing, strength and national pride.
4) Objective: To focus on job creation and skill enhancement in 25 key sectors of the economy, including automobiles, aviation, biotechnology, defence manufacturing, electrical machinery, food processing, oil & gas, and pharmaceuticals, among others.
5) The initiative also aims at imposing high quality standards and minimising the impact on the environment.
6) The campaign was designed by Wieden+Kennedy, an independent American advertising agency.
7) As part of the campaign, the Centre allowed 49% foreign direct investment (FDI) in the defence sector and 100% in railway infrastructure
8) Between September 2014 and November 2015, the government received Rs 1.20 lakh crore in proposals from companies interested in manufacturing electronics in India.
9) Key policies -- ease of doing business, getting away with archaic laws, 100 Smart Cities, disinvestment of public sector undertakings, skills and jobs for the youth, making India a manufacturer
10) Criticism has also surrounded the campaign – allegations of siphoning of funds, higher pricing, more profits for MNCs setting up plants in India, land-grabbing, and re-entry of black money.
11) Major challenges include creating a healthy business environment, removal of unfavourable factors, more focus on Indian’s micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME), lack of world class research and development (R&D), and comparisons with China's ‘Made in China’ campaign.
Highlights of the programme in 2015
1) In January 2015, a memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed between the Spice Group and the government of Uttar Pradesh stating that Spice would start a mobile phone manufacturing unit there, with an investment of Rs 500 crore.
2) In January 2015, Hyun Chil Hong, president & chief executive officer (CEO), Samsung South Asia, met Union MSME Kalraj Mishra to discuss a joint initiative under which 10 “MSME-Samsung technical schools” will be established in India. In February, Samsung said it will manufacture the Samsung Z1 in its plant in Noida.
3) In February 2015, Hitachi committed to the initiative. It said it would increase its employees in India from 10,000 to 13,000 and would try to increase its revenues from India from ¥100 billion in 2013 to ¥210 billion. It added that an auto-component plant will be set up in Chennai in 2016.
4) In February 2015, Huawei opened a new R&D campus in Bengaluru. It had invested $170 million to establish the centre. It is also in the process of setting up a telecom hardware manufacturing plant in Chennai. Also, in February, Marine Products Export Development Authority said it was interested in supplying shrimp eggs to shrimp farmers in India under the initiative.
5) In February 2015, Xiaomi began initial talks with the Andhra Pradesh government to begin manufacturing smartphones at a Foxconn-run facility in Sri City. On 11 August 2015, the company announced the first manufacturing unit was operational and introduced the Xiaomi Redmi 2 Prime, a smartphone assembled at the facility.
6) In June 2015, France-based LH Aviation signed an MoU with OIS Advanced Technologies to set up a manufacturing plant in India to manufacture drones.
7) On 8 August 2015, Foxconn announced it would invest $5 billion over five years to set up R&D and hi-tech semiconductor manufacturing facility to be set up in Maharashtra. Later, General Motors announced that it would invest $1 billion to begin manufacturing automobiles in the state.
8) On 18 August 2015, Lenovo announced that it had begun manufacturing Motorola smartphones at a plant in Sriperumbudur near Chennai, run by Singapore-based contract manufacturer Flextronics International. The plant has separate manufacturing lines for Lenovo and Motorola, as well as quality assurance, and product testing.
9) On 16 October 2015, Boeing Chairman James McNerney said the company could assemble fighter planes and either the Apache or Chinook helicopter in India. The company is also willing to manufacture the F/A-18 Super Hornet in India if the Indian Air Force (IAF) were to purchase it.
10) In November 2015, Taiwan's Wistron Corp, which makes devices for companies such as Blackberry, HTC and Motorola, announced that it would begin manufacturing the devices at a new factory in Noida, Uttar Pradesh.
11) On 30 November 2015, the ministry of railways signed formal agreements with Alstom and GE Transport worth Rs 40,000 crore ($5.9 billion) to set up locomotive manufacturing factories in Madhepura and Marhaura in Bihar.
12) In December 2015, Qualcomm announced that it was starting a Design in India programme to help mentor up to 10 Indian hardware companies with the potential to come up with innovative solutions and help them reach scale. As part of the programme, the company will set up an innovation lab in Bengaluru to provide technical and engineering support to the selected companies.
13) In December 2015, Micromax announced that it would put up three new manufacturing units in Rajasthan, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, at a cost of Rs 300 crore ($44 million). The plants will begin functioning in 2016, and will employ 3,000-3,500 people each.
14) In December 2015, Following Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s visit to India, it was announced that Japan would set up a $12-billion fund for Make in India-related projects, called the “Japan-India Make-in-India Special Finance Facility”.
15) In late December, Vivo Mobile India began manufacturing smartphones at a plant in Greater Noida. The plant employs 2,200 people.
