On Sunday, September 29, on the occasion of completion of 10 years of his ‘Mann Ki Baat’ programme, Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a big claim regarding the ‘Make in India’ programme. In fact, this ambitious program of Modi government has also completed ten years. So, Prime Minister Modi said that the ‘Make in India’ program has been very successful and has led to an increase in investment in India.
The Prime Minister’s words were – ‘Make in India’ program has also completed 10 years. The success of this campaign includes everyone from big industries to small shopkeepers. The poor, middle class and MSMEs are getting a lot of benefits from this campaign. Today India has become a power house of manufacturing. The country’s exports are continuously increasing in every sector. Now there is a need to focus more on quality and vocal for local. Along with this, Prime Minister Modi appealed to buy things made in India in this festive season.
To show the success of this program in India, it is repeatedly said that India is now the second largest country in mobile manufacturing. However, the reality is that mobiles are not manufactured in India. All its components are made in China or Taiwan or other countries, they are only assembled in India. The same thing is true about the textile industry also. According to a recent report, the reality of the rapidly booming textile industry in India is that 80 percent Chinese fabric is being used in the hosiery industry of Ludhiana. That means Indian businessmen are bringing clothes from China, stitching them and selling them.
Obviously, the reality of India’s ambitious ‘Make in India’ program is not as it is said to be. This campaign has not been successful in achieving the goals with which it was started. On the basis of government data, it can be said that India’s manufacturing sector is at a standstill. Haven’t been able to move forward.
The ‘Make in India’ program started with two stated goals. The first goal was to increase the share of manufacturing sector in India’s gross domestic product to 25 percent. 10 years ago it was around 15 percent. That means an ambitious target of 10 percent increase was set. The second target was to create 10 crore additional jobs in the manufacturing sector. At that time, six crore people got jobs in the manufacturing sector in India. Needless to say, most of these jobs were in the unorganized sector.
If these two goals are assessed on the occasion of completion of 10 years of this programme, it will be revealed that this ambitious campaign has not been successful in achieving both its declared goals. Even after 10 years, the share of manufacturing sector in India’s gross domestic product (GDP) is stuck between 15 to 16 percent. This is as much behind the declared target of 25 percent as it was in 2014. Similarly, if we talk about employment, according to NSSO data, employment in the manufacturing sector has decreased compared to before. In 2011-12, 12.6 percent employment was found in the manufacturing sector, which has decreased to 11.4 percent in 2022-23.
That means the number of people working in the manufacturing sector has decreased by more than one percent. So, this scheme has neither increased the share of manufacturing sector in GDP nor increased employment in this sector. This has happened when the growth rate of the country’s economy has been roughly seven percent during the same period. That is, despite the good growth rate of GDP, the growth rate of manufacturing sector did not accelerate. This means that there is some fundamental flaw somewhere in this program, due to which it has remained away from the target.
Meanwhile, another surprising figure has come. On one hand, while jobs in the manufacturing or industry sector have decreased, on the other hand, jobs in the agricultural sector have increased. According to a data, 42.5 percent people were employed in the agriculture sector in India in 2018-19, which has increased to 46 percent after five years in 2022-23. This is a sign of the cycle of time turning upside down. It is possible that due to the reverse migration that took place after the Corona epidemic and a large number of laborers returned to their villages, they took up agricultural work there. It can also be said that inclusion of many agriculture related works in MNREGA has also led to increase in employment in this sector. But this is a very big and worrying question that why the rate of industrial development is not increasing and why are people leaving the industry and going to the agricultural sector?
Now the question is also being asked whether the train of industrialization has started moving in reverse in India? But the question is how can this happen? How can the decline begin without reaching the heights of industrial development? There is also a question that if it is being claimed in India that there has been a major change in policies and due to improved ease of doing business India has become the most attractive place for investors from all over the world, then why are foreign investors not investing in the manufacturing sector? Investing in? An even bigger question is why Indian domestic investors are not investing in the manufacturing sector?
There may be many economic and policy reasons for this. But above all there is no hesitation in saying that Indian businessmen do not want to take risks and cannot think about anything other than making profits. That’s why instead of investing in the manufacturing sector, setting up new industries or creating employment opportunities for people, they choose the easier option of trading. They find it more profitable to bring things made in China and sell them in India or to assemble and export those things.
They avoid all the complexities involved in setting up an industry and earn more with less capital investment. If the government wants to really accelerate the manufacturing sector, increase its share in GDP and create new employment opportunities, then there is a need to change the industrial policy, arrange long-term loans on easy terms for setting up industries and reduce red tape. . The government should provide incentives as well as rationalize the entire import duty structure so that Indian industrialists are protected and able to compete globally.