NEW DELHI:Amid de-growth in the manufacturing sector, with government unable to attract foreign investment under their flagship ‘Make in India’ programme, the Modi government has directed all its ambassadors abroad to convince global manufacturers to come and set up plants in India.
The government has also given them a target of convincing at least one foreign company within six months to come and set up its manufacturing unit. This will have a multiplier effect both on exports and foreign investments along with increase in generating employment.
The Centre is currently in talks with Swedish company IKEA executives to bring their suppliers to set up units in India, a Commerce Ministry official said. “The Indian embassy has formally met the top management of IKEA in Poland. The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) had suggested that the company’s suppliers could manufacture major product lines such as furniture and kitchen equivalent in India.”
“We have proposed to hold a seminar in Warsaw with IKEA suppliers to take these proposals forward,” the official said.
India’s manufacturing sector growth declined in June both in terms of month-on-month as well as yearly basis amid declining exports and fall in corporate earnings, says an SBI research report.
D K Joshi, chief economist at Crisil said, “It is very difficult for the government to push demand in the short term. It will take time for manufacturing activities to grow as liquidity eases. We can expect a recovery only till 2017 fiscal.”
Earlier, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi ridiculed the Narendra Modi government’s ‘Make in India’ campaign, saying it “shows a powerful lion but you can’t hear him roar”. “Nothing has happened,” he said. “Even (the government’s) employment promises are not being fulfilled.”
The US manufacturing industry also said that it is ready to invest in India but for this it needs Narendra Modi to enact ‘serious policy reforms’ and provide a level playing field to protect collaboration and innovation.
However, Cisco has recently announced its plans for direct and indirect investment of up to $20 million over the next five years into the Cisco Networking Academy, with an additional $40 million for the next phase of expansion in India. On the manufacturing front, the networking giant said it will use its global supply chain expertise to help build and accelerate the manufacturing ecosystem in India.
