Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi will launch “Make in India” initiative on 25th September 2014 from Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi. The launch will be at both national level, state level and in Missions abroad. The ‘Make in India’ initiative has its origin in the Prime Minister’s Independence Day speech where he gave a clarion call to ‘Make in India’ and ‘Zero Defect; Zero Effect’ policy. State Governments, Business Chambers, Indian Missions aboard are playing an active role in the launch of the initiative.

The Government is committed to chart out a new path wherein business entities are extended red carpet welcome in a spirit of active cooperation. Invest India will act as the first reference point for guiding foreign investors on all aspects of regulatory and policy issues and to assist them in obtaining regulatory clearances. The Government is closely looking into all regulatory processes with a view to making them simple and reducing the burden of compliance on investors.

A dedicated cell has been created to answer queries from business entities through a newly created web portal (www.makeinindia.com). While an exhaustive set of FAQs on this portal will help the investor find instant answers to their general queries, the back-end support team of the cell would be answering specific queries within 72 hours. A pro-active approach will be deployed to track visitors for their geographical location, interest and real time user behaviour. Subsequent visits will be customised for the visitor based on the information collected. Visitors registered on the website or raising queries will be followed up with relevant information and newsletter. Investor facilitation cell will provide assistance to the foreign investors from the time of their arrival in the country to the time of their departure. The initiative will also target top companies across sectors in identified countries.

The ‘Make in India’ initiative also aims at identifying select domestic companies having leadership in innovation and new technology for turning them into global champions. The focus will be on promoting green and advanced manufacturing and helping these companies to become an important part of the global value chain.

The Government has identified 25 key sectors in which our country has the potential of becoming a world leader. The Prime Minister will be releasing separate brochures for these sectors along with a general brochure. The brochures covering sectors like automobiles, chemicals, IT, pharmaceuticals, textiles, ports, aviation, leather, tourism and hospitality, wellness, railways among others will provide details of growth drivers, investment opportunities, sector specific FDI and other policies and related agencies.

Since the new Government took over, a series of initiatives have been taken to revitalise the industrial sector in general and manufacturing sector in particular. To mention a few:

• The process of applying for Industrial License and Industrial Entrepreneur Memorandum has been made online on the e-Biz website 24*7;
• A vast number of Defence items have been de-licensed;
• The validity of Industrial license has been extended to three years;
• With a view to providing flexibility in working hours and increased intake of apprentices for on the job training, the Government has decided to amend a number of labour laws;
• An advisory  has been sent to all Departments/ State Governments to simplify and rationalize regulatory environment which includes:

• on-line filing of all returns in a unified form;
• no inspection without the approval of the Head of the Department, etc.

Recently the Foreign Direct Investment policy has been liberalized. 100% FDI under automatic route has been permitted in construction, operation and maintenance in specified Rail Infrastructure projects; FDI in Defence liberalized from 26% to 49%. In cases of modernization of state-of-art proposals, FDI can go up to 100%; the norms for FDI in the Construction Development sector are being eased.

The government is committed to improving the physical infrastructure. Development of dedicated freight corridors and investment in improving our ports and airports are underway. These corridors would house Industrial agglomerations along with smart cities. The private sector would be playing a significant role in these developmental works.

For the manufacturing sector to take advantage of the improved physical infrastructure, the need for having a strong human capital is recognized. Government’s effort would be to equip the working age population with the right kinds of skill so that the manufacturing sector finds them employable. One of the first decisions that the new Government has taken is to set up a separate Department of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship.

Various prominent National and International industry leaders are likely to attend the programme to launch the campaign along with Ministers, senior officials, Ambassadors and opinion leaders.

FDI liberalization and regulatory simplification expand investor access supported by an investor facilitation cell and sector outreach. The initiative creates a government-led investor facilitation framework-centred on Invest India, a dedicated web portal and an investor facilitation cell-to guide foreign investors on regulatory and policy issues, provide specific query responses within prescribed timelines, offer end-to-end assistance from arrival to departure, and conduct targeted outreach; this is paired with sector brochures for 25 priority industries and regulatory reforms including online licensing, de licensing, labour flexibility measures and FDI liberalisation to promote manufacturing, infrastructure development and skill building.