Make in India Week in Mumbai from Feb 13

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SME Times News Bureau | 18 Dec, 2015
A Make in India Week 2016 will be organised in Mumbai from February 13 to give further momentum to the initiative, which has seen the country trump the US and China by attracting FDI worth $31 billion in 2015's first half, a top official said on Thursday.

Secretary, Industrial Policy and Promotion, Amitabh Kant said the event, aimed at promoting India as a big investment destination and increasing its share in global foreign investment, would be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

"Make in India Week will be the biggest such promotional effort so far in India. Over a 1,000 companies are expected to showcase their achievements, while 70 countries will be participating," he said, adding that the theme of the event, to be held at the Bandra-Kurla Complex, would be "Innovation, Design and Sustainability".

In the first half of 2015, while China attracted overseas capital of $28 billion, for the US the figure was $27 billion, Kant said. Foreign direct investment (FDI) into India has witnessed a 35 percent increase during the last 17 months, compared to the same period earlier, he said.

The Mumbai event will also have various states and sectors making a pitch for investments through specially organised seminars.

America's Time magazine will for the first time give away their Time India Awards selected under the three separate categories of innovation, entreprenaurship and intelligent manufacturing, Kant added.

He said his department plans to hold more road shows across India to push domestic manufacturing. The department will hold a series of meetings over the next two months with corporate chiefs in each state to take stock of issues holding up projects.

Beiginning with Maharashtra, roadshows will follow in Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Haryana and Rajasthan.

"Despite global slowdown, India's FDI should grow at around 30 percent," Kant said.

"Our overall objective is that the share of manufacturing in India's economy should go up to 25 percent. India is the only country where growth has been driven by services, but these don't create jobs in dimensions we need," he said, adding that the Boston Consulting Group had said in a report that manufacturing in India had become one of the most competitive in the world.

US-based Forbes magazine in their latest annual list of the best countries for doing business in 2015 has ranked India 97th out of 144 nations, behind Kazakhstan and Ghana, scoring poorly on categories like trade and monetary freedom and tackling challenges like corruption and violence.

Forbes said that while the country is developing into an open-market economy, traces of its "past autarkic policies" remain.