Union Minister for Commerce Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday said that the Make in India initiative will fuel economic growth in 25 sectors.
At a time when Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) are falling elsewhere, India is attracting FDI at the rate of 38 per cent, she said, addressing the media at the curtain raiser press conference for the Make in India Week, to be held in Mumbai from February 13.
The Make in India programme will have 55 events and will see participation from 17 States, 60 countries and 207 exhibitors.
The event is expected to see government delegation from 49 nations and business delegations from 68 countries and will be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Sitharaman said that at a time when the world’s economy is going through a depression stage with falling demand and economy of large countries such as Russia and Brazil contracting, the Indian economy is growing and this has been vouched by global financial institutions such as World Bank, ADB, Nomura and IMF.
“Make in India is not a scheme or a programme. It is an initiative through which mindsets have been changed, new processes have been brought in,” Sitharaman said.
She said as the Indian economy is stable, other countries are showing interest in forming partnerships. The ease of doing business has helped showcase the potential in India. It has also fuelled competition among States, which is generating new interest among investors.
Comparing the Make in India Week to the Hannover Messe industrial fair, she said that German trade fair’s management gets about 12 months to put up a grand show.
But the Maharashtra Government has managed to do it in three months, she said. Stefan Löfven, Prime Minister of Sweden; Uwe Beckmeyer, Germany’s Parliamentary State Secretary, Ministry of Economic and Energy; Kevin Rudd, former Prime Minister of Australia; John Chambers, Chairman, USIBC; Anand Mahindra, Chairman of Mahindra & Mahindra; Kumar Mangalam Birla, Chairman of Aditya Birla Group, and Kunal Behl, CEO, Snapdeal, are expected to attend the event.
New investments The CEO of Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) Bhushan Gagrani told reporters that the Maharashtra Government plans to attract investments of ₹4 lakh crore during the Make in India Week.
He, however, declined to share details of companies that have promised investments .
The MIDC is the primary body of the Maharashtra Government for facilitating industrial investments in the State.
The Make in India Centre, setup at the MMRDA grounds in Mumbai to host the event, would showcase exhibitions of the most innovative products and manufacturing processes across 11 sectors.