I was born during 'Make in India'
When I was growing up in the 60s and 70s in India it was “ Make in India’. Everything we consumed was Indian. Our car was an Ambassador ( modelled after the old British Morris Oxford ). Our mixer was a Sumeet. Our bank was State Bank of India or some other nationalised bank ( remember all banks were nationalised on the stroke of midnight on 19 July 1969?). Our scooter was a Bajaj. And our TV was an ECIL ( Electronics Corporation of India Ltd ). Everything we ate and consumed was made in India. We waited in long queues to acquire our ‘Made in India’ products. Because India was still going through the pains of transforming from chrysalis to butterfly and just couldn’t produce enough goods to meet the demands of its already teeming millions.
It was the days of what got termed as the Swadeshi movement which started first at the turn of the 20th century as an opposition to the British. When the last of the multinational brands like Coke and IBM withdrew from India because of our Foreign Exchange Regulation Act, we shed a few tears because we had grown accustomed to some foreign products like Coke in the midst of our ‘Made in India’ products. These were the days when we craved for foreign products. We couldn’t think of wearing Levis jeans. We couldn't think of eating foreign chocolates or international brands of cars.
This was largely because of Pandit Nehru’s early socialist economic policies ably supported by his economist PC Mahalanobis which carried on long after this death. Nehru believed in the government funding all infrastructure projects particularly in the core sector. Which is why all our companies either started with Bharat, Hindustan, India or Indian as a prefix to their name.
Of course the 'Make In India' of the 60s didn't help us since it was restricted to Indian manufacturers. The 'Make in India' of today on the other hand, will open India to the world by inviting the worlds best brands to produce in India. Who wouldn't want that? I wonder why anyone in the country should have any objection to ‘Make in India’? It defies all logic. Its really a no-brainer.
After all India has come full circle economically speaking. It has liberalised over the last 20 years, allowed us to consume brands like any global consumer. And now it is time for India to reclaim its lost glory of “Made in India’. After all doesn’t China feel proud when they see the “Made in China” stamp in your Apple products, clothes, cars and other electronics?
Are we saying we won’t feel proud to see ‘ Made in India’ on a global product? Don’t the citizens of all countries feel proud to see the label of their own country on manufactured products? Made in the USA. Made in the UK. Made in China. Made in Italy. Made in Philippines. Don’t we want a 'Made in India'?
The objective of the Make in India program are laudable. Why wouldn’t we want the world to produce in India? Why wouldn’t we invite companies from all over the world to produce in India? Not the socialist India of the 60s but the modern liberated India of the 21st century.
The Make in India program is already making progress.
Don’t we want to emerge as the World’s destination for manufacturing in the following sectors?
Automobile. Automobile components. Aviation. Biotechnology. Chemicals. Construction. Defence Manufacturing. Electrical Machinery. Electronic Systems. Food Processing. IT and BPM. Leather. Media and Entertainment. Mining. Oil and Gas. Pharmaceuticals. Ports and Shipping. Railways. Renewable Energy. Roads and Highways. Space. Textiles and Garments. Thermal Power. Tourism and Hospitality. Wellness.
Make India proud. Be proud to be Indian. Be proud about ‘Make in India’ or ‘Made in India'.
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About the Author : Prabhakar Mundkur has spent 35 years in advertising and worked in India, Africa and Asia. He now works as an independent consultant.
He is also an Expert Mentor with marketingbuzzar.com, where he writes regularly.
Professor of Practice-Brand Marketing I JAGSoM I Advisor to Brands I Marketing Columnist
8 年What is more important than just making is 'what value will be captured in the making'. Make in India's success will in the long-term will be determined if the activities are also in the higher end of the value chain. For example: Apple manufactures a large volume of its products in China, but the value capture in this is only 10%. The balance 90% value for Apple is captured in design & development and Marketing & Branding. So making alone is not enough. Making with higher value capture is more important.
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8 年So in such a state, where the service economy took front seat, it will be difficult to move the economy to a manufacturing base. This would immediately entail a harsher decision to discourage services (GST being one of them here, although most of GST will be positive to overall economy). I like what the RBI governor said - Make For India. India is a supply constrained market, we will continue to be supply constrained until our inflation based economic indicators are adjusted to consider CPI instead of WPI. This shift has already happened, but largely on a wholesale level and not at hosuehold level. You continue to buy goods at a variance of 7-15% at minimum. Tobacco and Alcohol being two biggest examples. So, to sum it up - I wouldn't get too excited at this point. There's a long way to go and lets keep our eyes and ears open to read through policies that this Media smart government puts out :) Good luck :)
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8 年Yes, strategically speaking a good mix of GDP is good and services. Goods manufactured here, should meet the supply gaps in other countries. But here's the silver lining. India was a manufacturing hub, as you rightly pointed out, but China took it away from us a long long time ago. As a result, India moved into being a service economy and produced one of the best brains that lead many multinationals today. Strategic vocational education took front seat while skill based engineering jobs took a back seat. Examples of this theory are many, I am sure you'd agree. To address, why there's an objection to Make In India, lets look at the core understanding of GDP. GDP is primarily a country's topline, and not the bottom line and hence not the profit. GDP is often discussed in two variants - Nominal and PPP. If you perform a general search on EMs and Developed economies, you'll notice that countries that are consuming home grown good are high up in the curve - the likes of US, China & India. But our Nominal GDP (good manufactured elsewhere but ability to purchase in India) is phenomenally low. And goes without saying, Per Capita income is barely a division with population. And you have some hints now why we are still an EM.
Growing people who grow brands
8 年"Make in India" is one of the better strategic initiatives of the current government. (Read Narendra Modi). As indeed is "Swachh Bharat". However. I'd be happier if there was less rhetoric and more action. And if the entire government was behind these initiatives not as sycophants, but as their cause. We also seem to have evolved a strange interpretation of the political concept of opposition to mean "disruptively stall". The 10 indicators of the ease of doing business should not be too difficult to solve. I am wondering why the vote catching potential of "more jobs" from the Make In India program is not being used to clear up resistance to some of these 10 indicators. I am also wondering why Narendra Modi is not publicly reigning in the saffron brigade, which seems to be intent on shooting itself in the foot. It's effectively working as an opposition from within. Also quite puzzled as to what is to be gained by the "Nepal blockade".
India is doing a full 360 and a welcome change