'Hannover Messe to focus on Make in India, Skill India'

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SME Times News Bureau | 27 Mar, 2015
The Hannover Messe fair, the world's largest industrial trade fair, which Prime Minister Narendra Modi is to inaugurate next month, will provide the perfect platform to showcase India's engineering prowess and reinforce government initiatives like 'Make in India', 'Skill India' and 'Digital India', External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said here on Thursday.

Addressing the Growth Net Summit 2015, the minister said India was "ideally placed to emerge as a powerful player in global manufacturing landscape and export markets using our unique advantage of 3D - Democracy, Demography and Demand.

"At the centre of this endeavour is the 'Make in India' campaign. However, leveraging the 3D advantage requires appropriate public policy and also a positive external environment in terms of trade and investment opportunities."

She said the commerce wings in the Indian missions abroad are being re-energized as the focal point of commercial activity.

"The 'Make in India' programme for instance, was launched and promoted with much vigour by our missions abroad."

She said the commerce wings, besides helping bring exporters and importers together for mutual economic benefits, were also playing a role in resolving trade disputes that sometimes arise.

"By enhancing and widening the available markets for Indian producers, as well as finding them new avenues to source supplies from, our missions are making a direct and important contribution to the economic growth of the country," she said.

She enumerated the steps the government has taken for ease of doing business, including fast tracking clearances for projects, and also the government's policies like Swachh Bharat, Skill India, and Digital India.

She said that as part of the prime minister's vision of co-operative federalism by involving states, her ministry has created a "States Division" which is responsible for liaisoning with the states for all trade and investment related purposes.

"This will do away with the traditional one-size-fits-all approach and give a more local-needs based dimension to our foreign policy. We have also asked all our IFS officers to specialise in understanding the needs of two States of their choice," she said.

Another move toward inclusive approach to development was to increase interaction with the Indian diaspora abroad.

She said the prime minister has launched "a new form, a higher level of dialogue with the Indian diaspora across the world. He has reached out to them, and they have reciprocated his warmth and friendship".

"Our diaspora could be our most valuable partner in implementation of the flagship schemes of the government be it Swacch Bharat Abhiyan, Clean Ganga, skill development, smart cities or GIAN (Global Initiative of Academic Network)."