New Delhi: Hailing Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Make in India campaign and the emphasis on ease of doing business, India Inc on Thursday said the initiative mirrors the country's ambition to sprint ahead in the global manufacturing race, thereby creating jobs and boosting economic growth.
"The Make in India campaign promises to fast-track India's growth trajectory by making it a manufacturing hub. Made in India, Made by India but Made for the World, with the vision of empowering Indians by creating job opportunities, the campaign is the PM's ingenious formula to position India as the centrepiece of Asia's next growth story.
"With the promise of effective and easy governance, enabled by IT, this campaign will be a game changer to facilitate true convergence of innovative ideas both from within India and from overseas," Assocham President Rana Kapoor said.
Launching his government's ambitious project to make India a manufacturing hub, Prime Minister Narendra Modi today promised effective and easy governance to help achieve high growth and creation of jobs.
CII President Ajay Shriram said an initiative to ease procedures and attracting investments into the sector had been made at the right time.
"It is the only way to generate employment for the large pool of young people joining the labour force every year. As mentioned by the Prime Minister, the purchasing power of the people can be enhanced and demand created only if they have employment opportunities," Shriram said.
"It will take some time but I think it (Make in India) will get manufacturing on the centrestage and I think in due course it is going to help. We have to look at labour laws, land acquisition, we have to look at the regulations and infrastructure because today infrastructure is impeding the competitiveness.
"If you want manufacturing to take place, and the government has shown its commitment, you must also do other 20 things and I think that commitment will follow. I think it is already in progress and over the next 6 months we will see the results coming out," Ficci President Sidharth Birla told PTI.
Executive Director at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) India Vivek Mehra said: "On one hand the import regime has become very facilitative with substantial lowering of customs duty, abolishing of importing licences and free availability of foreign exchange.
"On the other hand manufacturing continues to suffer from infrastructure bottlenecks, environmental clearances and an unfriendly tax regime - both direct and indirect, which manifests itself as anti-manufacturing and therefore not providing a level-playing field for manufacturing in India vis a vis imports".
Electronics industry body IESA expressed happiness recognising and including electronic system design and manufacturing segment among 25 sector listed under Make in India programme.
"We're glad to see the PM's initiative towards making India a preferred manufacturing destination encompassing 25 sectors that includes ESDM and several other sectors that rely heavily on electronics," India Electronics and Semiconductor Association Chairman Ashok Chandak said.
IT products maker association MAIT said emphasis on removing on ground hurdles under Make In India initiative is an important move which would help build confidence amongst the investors.
"MAIT also welcomes the commitment of the government towards providing defined timelines for all clearances apart from providing exemptions from rules and regulations related to labour, environment," MAIT said.
The Manufacturers' Association for Information Technology (MAIT) added that all the measures announced under ' Make in India' initiative, will provide a major boost to the already existing SMEs who can provide component and sub system to the large manufactures, which in turn would create a much needed electronics manufacturing ecosystem.
Ambassador of Sweden to India Harald Sandberg said: "Sweden is very happy to be a part of the fantastic Make in India initiative by Prime Minister Modi. It sends a strong signal to the world and gives an impetus to trade and investments between our two countries. Swedish companies, present in India for more than 100 years, have a long term commitment to this country.
Commenting on the Make in India campaign, Vice Chairman and MD of JK Paper Harsh Pati Singhania said the endeavour is a 'lion step' that has the potential to change India?s economic future.
"It is heartening to see the Prime Minister talk of trust and outline both the impediments and opportunities of doing business in India. Success will however come from effective implementation in dealing with various factors required for Indian manufacturing to become globally competitive".
Robinder Sachdev, US India Political Action Committee's (USINPAC) India Affairs chief said: "This initiative will not only help making India a hub of manufacturing but will also make India's economic growth more inclusive. As India takes giant strides towards digitisation and transforms into a clean, financially inclusive and skilled nation, the Indian diaspora is excited at the potential ahead."
Partner at Grant Thornton India LLP Harish H V said: "India desperately needs to grow its shrunken manufacturing sector to create jobs for its huge population particularly those of the youth to prevent the demographic dividend from becoming a social disaster. Hence the Make in India campaign is critical. This needs to be more than a slogan but must become the key mantra for the central and state governments."
