Intro: Indians have the capacity and capability to transform India, once a Sone ki Chidiya to Sone ka Sher in the days to come.
The last one year has been momentous for India’s development and progress from every perspective. It has seen India come out from the shadowy space of laggardness and begin the journey of its great resurgence which is a divine writ of history. A country which was being barely noticed and given passing attention on the global centre stage began asserting itself and showing in unmistakable terms the onset of a phase of economic and cultural resurgence bringing it under global glare and focus. We started the series of twenty five articles on Make in India programme of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, each article dwelling upon one specific sector of the programme. The last article was on automobile components production, which has appeared in the present issue of Organiser. We have tried to present a critical resume of strengths, opportunities and threats associated with each sector in these articles with a dispassionate review of the government's policy initiatives, while also suggesting fresh and novel ideas to shore up India's manufacturing industry. We have seen a 47 per cent surge in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in India's economy in 2014-15 over the previous year. This testifies to the statements as aforesaid. But this is only the beginning. It is not even the full trailer of the show of India’s great economic resurgence. Much more is yet to come. However, at this juncture, we would help ourselves a lot if we brought into our plan of action.
Opposition and delay to Land Acquisition Bill clearance poses the biggest roadblock to the success of Make in India programme. We suggest that no land be purchased by the promoters or developers of businesses. Let factories and plants be built on leased land, without shift of ownership. This will facilitate the acquisition of land on leasehold basis while also reducing the capital cost of projects. The other important point is the need of abolishing inspector raj. Let a system of self certification based on inspections carried out by outsourced professional accredited private agencies with random inspection by government authorities. This will eliminate corruption while enhancing construction pace and quality. Finally, big time marketing support should be provided by government to beat the competition from China and other manufacturer-exporter countries.
(The writer is a senior columnist)
