 "Narendra Modi")
Welcoming friends from abroad, industry captains, ministers and the audience in general to the Make in India Week, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that 65 per cent of the Indian populaton is under age 35. Youthful energy is the country's
greatest strength and Make in India has been launched to generate employment, create opportunities for youth.
The key highlight of his speech was his emphasis on deregulation, decentralisation and tax reforms in a bid to invite global business to participate in making India the global manufacturing hub. Excerpts of his speech:
- Our aim is to make India the global manufacturing hub, and to ensure that the manufacturing sector's contribution to GDP rises to 25%
- We are committed to making India an easy place to do business and have laid all round emphasis on ease of doing business
- Make in India Week is an oppoprtunity to take stock of how we have performed and the work out the road ahead
- I encourage all of you to see for yourself the direction India is taking
- Within a year's time, Make in India has begun the biggest brand India ever created. It has encouraged us to integrate wih the globe.
- India is the most open country for FDI and most sectors are on automatic route today. FDI inflows is up 48 per cent since my govt came into office
- FDI inflow in December 2015 was the highest ever in the country -- this, when global FDI had fallen.
- We have taken a number of corrective actions on taxation and have said will not resort to retrospective taxation
- In the manufacturing sector we have taken decisive steps in this directiom such as licensing, and cross border business
- From licensing to export regime, we have given what the defence industry was looking for
- This year (FY2016) we will record the highest ever coal production
- 2015 was the year India recorded the highest ever power generation
- Fifty new mobile phone factories set up during the past 10 months
- 159 electronic system design and manufacturing (ESDM) units set up in 2015
- We have already enacted a law for fast-tracking arbitration
- Formation of company law tribunal is in final stage. We will be putting in place IPR regime and hope to pass bankruptcy laws on priority
- In 2014-15 contributed 12.5 percent to global economic growth. India's contribution to global economic growth is 58% higher than its share of the global economy
- India jumped 12 ranks in the latest World Bank ranking on ease of doing business
- We have opened up greenfield and brownfield projects to public-private partnerships
- We have set up National Investment and Infrastructure Fund have come up with Tax free bonds in rail, road and irrigation sectors
- No time for incremental changes, we want a quantum jump. We need to do this in a cleaner and greener way and are targeting creation of 175 Gw of clean energy capacity. There will also be emphasis on water recycling, green energy
- 50 cities earmarked for setiing up metro facilities; we have to build 15 million houses
- India is characterised by three Ds -- Democracy, Demography and Demand. To this we have added the fourth D: deregulation. With this, India offers you a strong platform to explore your designing and manufacturing capabilities
- Judiciary is independent and time-tested
- We have launched a number of financing schemes to promote entrepreneurship. We have launched MUDRA scheme without any collateral and have asked banks to identify potential among backward classes and women
- When we started Make in India, manufacturing growth was only 1.7 per cent; now in this quarter it is expected to reach 12.6 per cent
- Highest ever software exports in 2015; Highest ever quantity of cargo handled by ports in 2015
- You take one step, we will walk two steps with you. We want our youth to become job creators not job seekers. That is why we also conceived Start-up India
- This century is Asia's century. I advise you to make India your centre if you want this to be YOUR century. This is the best time to be in India and even better to make in India
