Why this is important to Wisconsin businesses: Wisconsin companies have the opportunity to play a role.
Aiming to gain global recognition, India’s government has launched the “Make in India” initiative to promote India as a manufacturing hub. India ranks sixth among the world’s top manufacturing countries, with China topping the list, followed by the U.S., Japan, Germany and Korea.
“Make in India” has identified 25 core sectors to boost manufacturing: automobiles, auto components, aviation, biotechnology, chemicals, construction, defense manufacturing, electrical machinery, electronic systems, food processing, information technology and business process management, 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.
Despite India’s economy being the seventh-largest in the world by nominal GDP and third-largest by purchasing power parity, it still lags behind Bangladesh and Sri Lanka in some areas.
“Make in India” comprises four major policies:
- New Initiatives: Facilitate investment, foster innovation, protect intellectual property and build best-in-class manufacturing infrastructure; improve the ease of doing business in India.
- Foreign Direct Investment (FDI): India has already marked its presence as one of the fastest-growing economies of the world. It has been ranked among the top 3 most attractive destinations for inbound investment. The government has allowed 100 percent FDI in almost all sectors, except for a few with caps: space (74%), defense (49%) and news media (26%), among others.
- Intellectual Property Facts: Improve and protect the intellectual property rights of innovators and creators by upgrading infrastructure and using state-of-the-art technology
- National Manufacturing: Increase manufacturing sector growth to 12 to14 percent per annum; enhance global competitiveness and create 100 million jobs by 2022.
India is contributing around 2 percent of the world’s total manufacturing output, which is low compared to countries like the U.S., China and Japan—showing huge potential in the Indian manufacturing sector, which has the potential to reach $1 trillion by 2025 and can contribute approximately 20 to 30 percent of India's GDP, up from the current contribution of 15-16 percent.
India wants to be a world manufacturing power, but still lacks infrastructure, adequate skilled labor force, cutting-edge technologies and advanced manufacturing—presenting opportunities for Wisconsin firms.