With reference to T N Ninan's piece, "Making and faking" (February 20), although the Narendra Modi government has performed commendably on various economic fronts during its 21 months in power, the tendency of some of its key ministers to count the chickens before the eggs are actually laid has often landed them in trouble and thus hampered the credibility of their claims. Their self-praise does not, however, negate the fact that things have started moving in the right direction. But it would be naive to expect magical results.
Modi's pet project, Make in India, although well-intended, faces roadblocks in the form of infrastructural and technical problems as well as the near-absence of foreign investments that this government had claimed were knocking on the doors of India. Several holes need to be plugged urgently.
It's a different matter that a few leading fighter aircraft makers such as Boeing and Saab have shown interest in relocating their assembly lines to India. The latest is Lockheed Corporation, which seems keen to set up manufacturing and/or assembling plants for F-16 fighter planes in India. It is already in talks with the government on this proposition.
Of course, it is to the credit of the Modi government that companies such as Tata Group, Mahindra & Mahindra, Bharat Forge and Larsen & Toubro are being encouraged to localise defence production - a situation that had never materialised before.
S Kumar New Delhi
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