Sudhanshu Mani
Is there any other country that would spend so much and yet have no indigenous design or local high-end manufacturing to show for?
The Make In India (MII) scheme was launched by the Narendra Modi government to boost domestic manufacturing. However, the pandemic of 2020 intervened, bringing economic woes and disruption of supply chains, adding to the existing despair over border issues with China. We soon realized that China had a stranglehold on certain key manufacturing sectors.
The government rejigged the MII scheme into the Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan. A hyped Rs 20lakh-crore fiscal stimulus package was announced. It was, however, mainly about making easy credit available to the MSMEs. The demand plummeted and the requirement of investments touched a new low with no signs of expected profit on investments and working capital showing an upward trend. The credit-deposit ratio of banks was not encouraging. It was a re-packaging of existing schemes with hardly any fiscal torpedoes to boost demand. The government's stance was to rely more on increased credit supply rather than all-out fiscal intervention.
Given this background, the hope of Atmanirbhar Bharat converting MII into a new avatar of self-reliance appeared far-fetched. Schemes like Production-linked Incentive, with their gestation periods, do have an immediate impact and some sectors have geared for enhanced production but to blame the pandemic for sluggish activities is incorrect as, after all, the pandemic was the reason, and the opportunity, for the Abhiyan.
The narratives claiming successes are also misplaced. In 2020, China imported 11 per cent more from India while our imports from China reduced by 14 per cent. The trade deficit came down by 22 per cent. But it happened due to reduced production in our factories which use Chinese raw materials. With no increase in the export of value-added products, it does not help our self-reliance.
However, here is the perspective of a proud engineerwho would like to see the Atmanirbhar campaign bolstered and nurtured in a resurgent India through innovation, technology, and its management. The birth of an idea, transformed into a product, process or business concept, within a marketplace with an outcome of value, completes the cycle of innovation. This leads to a systemic knowledge and skillset to manufacture a product or service, employing apt technology. Technology can be borrowed for some time by a large developing country like ours to catch up with the world but at some point, it has to become self-reliant in technology. Do we stand where Japan was in the fifties or China in the nineties? Yes. They also imported and copied technologies at some stage but are now confident creators of products and technologies.
Despite our size and talent pool, we have remained an importer of technology. A country that can make Mangalyaan in an environment of technology-denial at one-tenth the cost of Antilia — the Ambani abode — has no home-grown technologies to boast of. This is obviously a result of our cockeyed focus over the decades by successive governments and the onus now lies squarely on this government to change course fast.
The best thing is to invest in R&D with the government engaging our industry with a caveat: do majority design and development work in India. Our obsession with a level playing field in public procurement is favouring multinationals and their products as the eligibility criterion stipulated in projects tends to exclude capable Indian companies which lack experience.
Some examples: Rapid urbanisation in India has boosted the Metro sector. Metro technology has seen improved designs, functionality, and efficiencies. However, except for the nostalgic, indigenous Kolkata Metro of 1984, India does not own any technology and only low-end work is done here. Is there any other country that would spend so much and yet have no indigenous design or local high-end manufacturing to show for? The Mumbai locals move at higher speeds and at times, greater frequency, but their equipment is now fully designed and manufactured in India. These trains may not match the aesthetics of Metro trains but Indian designs can help reduce prices substantially and, if encouraged, can lead to exports too.
We hear of FAME I and FAME II policies for greater penetration of Electric Vehicles but their electronics, converters, motors, and batteries are imported. And solar installations? The solar module with the cell, batteries and convertor are mostly imported. We need a playing field thatwill benefit local industry willing to design and create IPRs that would rest with India. A million designs and projects are blossoming in the minds of an aspirational India. All they need is the leadership's resolve to make India truly Atmanirbhar.
(The writer is retired general manager, Indian Railways. The views expressed are personal.)
