By Stuti Mohan,
India has a workforce of 500 million, with nearly 13 million youth entering the labour market every year. So there should be a gateway to channelize this energy into fruitful gains of output.
PM Modi’s ambitious project “Make in India” aims to turn India into a global manufacturing hub.
The service sector contributes to 28% of employment generation and 54% towards the GDP. Contrary to this, the agriculture sector contributes towards 47.5% of employment generation and 17.5% towards the GDP. So, the paradoxical gap between contribution to GDP and employment generation in services and agriculture sector makes it imperative to vitalize India’s manufacturing sector.
“Skill deficiency” is adding to the problem of unemployment. This discourages big corporate houses from investing in India, thus, hampering India’s growth.
There is a need to grow India’s global manufacturing base. Currently at the 9th position with 2.1% share in global manufacturing, there is still a long way to go when we compare ourselves with our neighbouring country China, which has a global manufacturing base of 22.5%.
The role of the private sector is also very important. India requires an active and enlightened private sector to reduce India’s skill deficit.
The “Invest India” unit in the commerce ministry will act as the first reference point for guiding foreign investors on all aspects of regulatory policy issues and to assist them in obtaining regulatory clearance.
Online support systems and web portals have also been created to answer queries of business entities.
The Government has identified 25 sectors where India has the potential of becoming a world leader.Small and Medium size Enterprises (SMEs) too can contribute to the success of the campaign.
[su_pullquote align=”right”]India’s “Make in India” campaign will constantly be compared to China’s “Make in China” campaign, which was launched on the same day.[/su_pullquote]
Research and development should be encouraged to make India a pioneer in the manufacturing sector. Recently, in an interview, the Minister of Commerce and Industry, Ms. Nirmala Sitharaman, said that the receding economy of China will help India in the global market, as our country’s export strength has always relied on our qualitative superiority of the goods while China is largely associated with poor quality of goods.
The Chinese economy is looking pretty shaky these days. It grew 7.4% in 2014, the slowest in 24 years, signalling the end to the scorching era of 3 decades.
According to the World Bank and the IMF, the Indian economy will soon outpace the Chinese one. These developments make “Make in India” very important to accelerate India’s economic growth. The fall in the exports of China will provide room for Indian made goods and would increase India’s exports, thereby, increasing foreign currency. And all this is evident from India’s stock market, which is currently going through a bull run.
The recent tableau of “Make in India” in the Republic Day parade revealed the national importance of the issue. The float, which displayed a working model of the ‘Make in India’ lion, invited manufacturers and investors to participate in the initiative. A mechanical lion representing different sectors like biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, etc., showed a vision of India as a pioneer in the manufacturing sector and that in future, it would be one of the sectors contributing a substantially higher share towards GDP.
Stuti Mohan is currently a second year student pursuing B.A.(h) Economics from Shri Ram College Of Commerce,Delhi University. She is a passionate writer and is currently a part of the editing team of the college magazine, Yamuna,the editorial head of the colleges quiz society and a member of the editorial team of NSS.Her vision in life is to excel in whatever she undertake to do.
Edited by Madhavi Roy