Analysis : Red Carpet to the Investors

Intro: 'Make in India' campaign can be the trigger point in transformation of Indian manufacturing.

Intro: We know that India is not the easiest country to do business in. But we have experience of how the Gujarat Government functioned when the Prime Minister was the Chief Minister of Gujarat, and we hope that same way would be followed across the country.

– Kenichi Ayukawa, Chairman, Maruti Suzuki India Ltd

Intro: India embarks on a new mission helped by the vision of PM Modi. It is a landmark mission that coincides with our triumph in outer space. Having earned the title of IT
hub for long, it is time for the world to see India as a
manufacturing hub.

– Kumar Mangalam Birla, Chairman of the Aditya Birla Group

Intro: We have embarked on the path for India to become a global manufacturing power. Never before have we seen so much focus and attention on the vital manufacturing sector. This mission is a tribute to millions of entrepreneurs who effortlessly work over years.

-Sidharth Birla
President, FICCI

Assuring red carpet to the investors, National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government is committed to create a business friendly environment to boost the manufacturing sector of India. In this process, the Government has identified 25 sectors which have the potential to make India a leader in several fields. Including the ones in India, Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi has met with 11 leading CEOs, including Google’s Eric Schmidt, David M Rubenstein of the Carlyle Group, Citigroup CEO Michael Corbat, Doug Oberhelman of Caterpillar Inc, Indra Nooyi of Pepsico and Michael Ball of US based global pharmaceutical company Hospira Inc and Kenneth C Frazier of Merck and Co. during his America’s visit to make India a manufacturing hub.
PM Modi has always talked about his vision of ‘Make in India’ in his election speeches and in Independence Day speech also. Just before his visit to America, PM Modi launched the ambitious ‘Make in India’ campaign with the goal of making India a manufacturing hub. The government is likely to allow foreign-funded Indian firms to sell goods online if they make more than three-fourths of their product range at home. This is a wider push to promote manufacturing and to boost homegrown brands. Business Tycoons like Tata Sons Chairman Cyrus Mistry, Maruti Suzuki India MD Kenichi Ayukawa, RIL CMD Mukesh ambani, Bosch India ED Franz Hauber, Wipro Chairman Kumar mangalam Birla and ICICI Bank CEO Chanda Kochhar was also present on the historic launch of the campaign. Commenting on the ‘Make in India’ campaign, Sidharth Birla, President, Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) said “We have embarked on the path for India to become a global manufacturing power. Never before have we seen so much focus and attention on the vital manufacturing sector. This mission is a tribute to millions of entrepreneurs who effortlessly work over years to show that India is a reliable source of high-quality state of the art products that serve demand not only at home but all over the world”. “FICCI and its entire membership commits itself to the goals set by our Prime Minister to turn India into a manufacturing destination through a ruthless focus on quality and efficiency as well as on reducing the impact on the environment of the production processes deployed,” he added. ‘Make in India’ campaign can be the trigger point in transformation of Indian manufacturing. This has been long due as manufacturing sector has largely remained a laggard in terms of growth and its share in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) stagnated at 15-16% for many years. Given the need to create a million non-farm jobs every month, manufacturing would have to grow at 12-14% annually.
The focus hence must be on:

• Improving Business Environment through ease of doing business and an encouraging fiscal framework.
• Enabling manufacturing set-up by providing a conducive eco-system that supports factor advantage, nurtures innovation and strengthens inter-linkages with other industries and institutions.
• Attracting Greater Capital through further liberalisation of foreign direct investment in key sectors.

‘Invest India’ has set up Investor Facilitation Cell to strengthen ‘Make in India’. In a bid to give a fillip to Prime Minister’s ‘Make in India’ campaign, ‘Invest India’ has set up a dedicated ‘Investor Facilitation Cell’ at FICCI to act as primary support for all investment queries and for providing handholding and liaisoning services to investors.
‘Invest India’ is a not-for-profit joint venture between the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), Ministry of Commerce & Industry; state governments; and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI).
The ‘Investor Facilitation Cell’ will provide the following handholding and facilitation services for attracting investments into the critical sectors of the economy:

• Providing all information/data analysis to investors across all sectors;
• Follow up information/approvals from all departments/agencies of Government on behalf of the investor and the investing community;
• Receiving investors and providing them facilitation. Handholding escort service from the point of arrival to the point of departure;
• Interacting with all States in a Hub & Spoke Model and feeding the investors with State policies relating to land/labour/capital and investment;
• Maintaining a dynamic vibrant web-portal with all the policies and incentives of the State Governments;
• Fixing meetings/appointments of the investors with different departments and agencies of the Government.

The government has already set up nodal officers in economic ministries and state governments to support the ‘Investor Facilitation Cell’.                      Nishant Kumar Azad