Big reforms needed for Modi’s ‘made in India’ vision: industry

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision of making India a manufacturing hub will remain a pipe-dream unless the multitude of ills plaguing India's manufacturing sector are addressed, say industrialists.

Business across the country took Modi's words with a pinch of salt as ground realities present a completely different and difficult picture of industrial production in the country, reports CNBC-TV18.

Satyajeet Singh, who runs a small food processing unit in Patna supplying products to nine different countries, insist that it is very difficult to turn India into a manufacturing hub given the highly competitive global market.

"Every government makes similar promises. We need to get clarity on land acquisition, we don't have access to finance, in India the cost of capital is very high," Singh elaborated.

Dye manufacturers in Ahmedabad have seen exports fall by 50 per cent. Chief executive officer of Asiatic Colour-Chem Industries Ltd Mahesh Agarwal said, "In countries like China, the government purchases technologies and gives these to the industries, which pay back the costs over a period of five years. This is a benefit that should be introduced in India as well."

Agarwal insisted that India must rationalise duties and taxes so that it becomes more lucrative for European countries to import from India.

While the mood is upbeat in the various chambers of commerce, experts say that Modi's vision needs to be followed up with suitable policies and their subsequent implementation.

One of the major reasons for the Bharatiya Janata Party's spectacular electoral victory was the promise of job creation. One way of achieving this it is by giving a much needed boost to the manufacturing sector which currently contributes only 15 per cent of India's GDP.

The industry is looking forward to a complementary policy and more importantly maintaining it for a long duration.