Prime Minister Narendra Modi has asked India Inc to first focus on developing the country and then look abroad.
"FDI also means First Develop India and not just Foreign Direct Investment. Both the FDIs should move on parallel tracks," the PM said, while launching the 'Make in India' campaign here on Thursday.
Modi stressed on effective and easy governance, besides employment generation. "Investors have to understand that the purchasing power of India has to go up for expanding," he said.
Kicking off the ‘Make in India’ campaign, he said his government’s focus will be on physical infrastructure creation as well as creating a digital network for making India a hub for global manufacturing of goods ranging from cars to software, satellites to submarines and paper to power.
“I do not only talk about good governance. I talk about effective governance and easy governance,” he said, while launching the ‘Make in India’ campaign that was attended by a galaxy of industrialists and business leaders, including Cyrus Mistry, Mukesh Ambani, Azim Premji, Kumar Mangalam Birla, Chanda Kocchar and Y C Deveshwar.
Calling upon domestic and international companies to invest in India, the Prime Minister said his government’s focus is not only to ‘Look East’ but also to ‘Link West’.
“We want highways. We also want i-ways — information ways for a Digital India,” Modi said, adding “Make in India is not a slogan, not an invitation’’.
Recalling the scenario of last two-three years where “companies were looking to move out of country”, he said three months of the NDA government has reversed the mood with its focus on easing the process of doing business in the country.
“Government is committed to development. This is not a political agenda, but an article of faith,” he said, while stressing on public-private partnership as well as skill development for increasing the share of manufacturing in GDP.
Modi said the world is ready to come to Asia and India offers best destination as it is a vibrant democracy with demographic dividend and huge demand.
Earlier, the Commerce and Industry Minister, Nirmala Sitaraman, assured de-licensing, de-regulation and radical changes to attract domestic and foreign investors into the country.
In an event to mark the launch of the 'Make in India' initiative, she said that the Government would focus on 25 sectors to push manufacturing, including automobiles, textiles, leather, electronics, engineering and IT.
She said that the Government aims to raise the share of manufacturing to 25 per cent of GDP from 15 per cent. Under the new initiative a dedicated team would facilitate investors 24x7. It may be noted that the Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the new mission in his Independence Day speech this year.
The Minister said many new initiatives had been announced, including liberalisation of the FDI regime in sectors such as defence and the Railways. But this was just the beginning and many more measures would be initiated, she said, while adding that the effort would be to remove the tag of a country riddled with red-tapism.
In his remarks, the Chairman of Reliance industries, Mukesh Ambani, announced investment of Rs. 1.80 lakh crore in the next 12-15 months which, in turn, would create 1.25 lakh jobs. He also hoped that implementation of GST would help to create a single market.