Modi unveils Mega Make in India Fair

New Delhi: To turn the country into a global manufacturing hub, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday unveiled the ambitious “Make in India” campaign,calling the campaign the step of a Lion.

“we have begun to change circumstances that forced businessmen to leave country,” said Modi. With ‘Make in India’, my government is expressing its faith in the country’s sincerity and willingness to work, he added.

The Prime Minister redefined FDI as First Develop India. “People are talking about FDI but I see things differently. FDI is also a responsibility for the people of India. FDI should also stand for First Develop India,” said the Prime Minister. For India’s citizens FDI is a responsibility. For the rest of the world it is an opportunity.

“I was sad to see people were not willing to invest in India. I don’t want any Indian company to shift base from India. Mantra of our Government is that we want to trust each and every India. The atmosphere of trust can change a lot of things,” said Modi.

Modi urged CEOs to not think of India just as a market. He said the quicker Indian middle class grows the bigger the market will become.

In the audience are about 500 CEOs including leading industrialists like Mukesh Ambani of Reliance Industries, Cyrus Mistry, chairman of Tata Group, Azim Premji, chairman, Wipro, Kumar Mangalam Birla who heads the Aditya Birla Group and Chanda Kochhar of ICICI Bank.

Meanwhile, Commerce and industry minister Nirmala Sitharaman, said the government has been able to change perception of India in last few months. A series of measures have been taken on ease of doing business and the government is fully committed to de-licensing, deregulating and taking India to high growth trajectory.

The campaign is aimed at making India a manufacturing hub, and the government is pulling out all the stops for ensuring a smooth sailing for investors, by setting up a dedicated cell to answer queries of business entities within 72 hours. 

It will also closely monitor all regulatory processes to make them simple and reduce the burden of compliance.

“The government is committed to chart out a new path, wherein business entities are extended red carpet welcome in a spirit of active cooperation. Invest India will act as the first reference point for guiding foreign investors on all aspects of regulatory and policy issues and to assist them in obtaining regulatory clearances,” said an official statement.

The government has identified 25 key sectors in which our country has the potential of becoming a world leader.

Investor facilitation cell will provide assistance to the foreign investors from the time of their arrival in the country to the time of their departure, with focus on green and advanced manufacturing and helping these companies to become an important part of the global value chain. 

The campaign will target top companies across sectors in identified countries. It also aims to identify select domestic companies having leadership in innovation and new technology for turning them into global champions.

The initiative has its origin in the Prime Minister’s Independence Day speech where he gave a clarion call to ‘Make in India’ and ‘Zero Defect; Zero Effect’ policy.

A dedicated cell has been created through the web portal (www.Makeinindia.Com) to answer queries from business entities. While an exhaustive set of FAQs on this portal will help the investor find instant answers to their general queries, the back-end support team of the cell would be answering specific queries within 72 hours.

A pro-active approach will be deployed to track visitors for their geographical location, interest and real-time user behaviour. Subsequent visits will be customised for the visitor based on the information collected. Visitors registered on the website or raising queries will be followed up with relevant information and newsletter.