What is the “Make in India” Initiative? What are the Developments So Far?

The Make in India initiative was launched by the central government on 25 September 2014 to encourage national as well as multi-national companies to manufacture their products in India. Its main aim is to improve the economic growth and push jobs creation for the people in the country.

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As a result of the initiative, India became the top global destination for Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) in 2015 as it surpassed other powerful economies like U.S. and China and received a total of $63 billion in FDI.

The following are some of the most important things to know about the Make in India initiative:

• It’s focused on skill enhancement and job creation in the top 25 sectors of the economy including aviation, biotechnology, oil & gas, automobiles, etc.
• As part of the initiative, the government allowed as much as 49% foreign investment in the defense sector, and up to 100% FDI in the railway’s infrastructure.
• In January 2015, the Uttar Pradesh government signed a MoU with Spice Group as per which it started a mobile manufacturing unit in the state with a Rs. 500 crores investment. In the same month, the president & CEO of Samsung South Asia, Hyun Chil Hong, met with Union MSME Kalraj Mishra regarding a joint initiative under which they decided to create 10 MSME-Samsung Technical Schools in Noida. Today, there are 22 such schools across the country.
  Many other similar initiatives were taken by the big companies and the government for the success of the campaign.
• “Make in Maharashtra” is another initiative launched by the Maharashtra state government on the sidelines of the Make in India initiative that aims at setting up a better environment for ease of doing business in the state and encourage more FDI.
• Recently, the government decided to revamp the campaign and will focus on five labour-intensive sectors instead of all 25 (the ones selected initially) viz. textiles and garments, automobiles, pharma, engineering, and leather.