Mr. Avneet Singh Marwah, Director and CEO of Super Plastronics(Kodak TV Brand licensee partner)
New Delhi, March 17, 2017: India saw its biggest reform in 1991 when the New Economic Policy was introduced by the government aiming to create a more competitive environment in the economy as a means to improving the productivity and efficiency of the system. This was to be achieved by removing the barriers to entry and the restrictions on the growth of firms. Some of the important reforms introduced under the policy were in form of Liberalisation of industry and trade practices, privatisation and Globalisation. Some of the reforms were, increase in the investment limit for Small Scale Industries (SSI), freedom to import capital goods, freedom for expansion and production to Industries and Abolition of Restrictive Trade practices. Along with the former all restrictions on foreign trade were removed and open competition was encouraged.
India’s capital markets found exponential growth. The number of listed companies grew and resulted in a healthy trend of development in India. SSI thrived in the environment and faced international competition while business houses also reached new limits. In respect on consumer durables, small and critical components were being manufactured here which lead to a price competitive market being established in India as against the rest of the world and export options also opened up. Electronic products, which were considered a luxury, starting becoming affordable household products.
However, the economic reforms were not sustained for long as the new policies that were introduced slightly later on were not conducive to the existing economy or reforms in place. Products that could have been manufactured in India, started being made in International markets and were cheaper to import rather than Make in India.
Slowly and steadily manufacturing started declining and there was a point that most of the manufacturing came to a stop and majority of the products were imported, marking India as a trading hub instead of a manufacturing hub and factories still in operation were working under par.
After 2014, the manufacturing industry has gotten a boost with the Make in India initiative. Although, even at present, a large number of components are manufactured outside India due to non-availability of infrastructure and technology in our country. A major drawback in importing these components is that they are made according to global standards and not Indian standards, i.e. they are not structured keeping in mind the erratic power supply or availability of content, hence the chances of such components failing remains high.
If Small and medium scaled industries are encouraged to develop these components with the latest technology and support for research and development is provided, the failure rate will go down considerably.
Four things that the government should focus on, to support the Make in India initiative, is Infrastructure, Logistics, Policy making and Bureaucracy which will help in converting India into a manufacturing hub. Today we are at a point where products available in India which are competitive to the international market and if necessary development continues, then in the longer run, India can start export on a large scale as well.
Corporate Comm India(CCI Newswire)
