Vocal For Local

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Make In India’ and ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ campaign to facilitate investment, foster innovation, enhance skill development, protect intellectual property and build best-in-class manufacturing infrastructure has opened up multiple investment doors for the nation

During the last fiscal year, the Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that, despite the historic global disruptions, India's exports stood at a total (goods and services) of $670 billion. He added that India's merchandise exports in 2021-22 crossed $418 billion as against the target of $400 billion.

Modi’s clarion call of 'Make in India' has helped India reduce its dependency on imports and likewise boosted the local economy. He calls it ‘the need of the hour’, whilst urging industry to make efforts to cut imports of goods that can be manufactured in India.

The Prime Minister said that announcements in the Budget for ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’ and ‘Make in India’ are important for the industry and Indian economy. “The industry should talk about ‘vocal for local’ and ‘Make in India’ in their product advertising. India has huge young talent and skilled manpower, and this can be used to promote ‘Make in India’,” the PM added.

The government also continues to promote programmes such as “Make in India” launched in 2014 and “Self-reliant India” (Atmanirbhar Bharat – May 2020) that seek to increase India's self-sufficiency by promoting domestic industry and reducing reliance on foreign suppliers and imported goods. India has also proposed and promulgated several data localisation requirements.

Let’s take a look at a few sectors that are boosting India’s Glocal vision on its 75 years of Independence.

The Toy Story

In a big boost, Indian toy exports jumped by 61.38 per cent during the same period. In India, where over 158 million children are in the age group of 0-6, there is a huge market for the toy industry (as of the Census 2011). India used to import a large percentage of toys until August 2020, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi emphasized on local production.

He emphasised the need for the right kind of toys for children, using toys as a learning resource, and designing toys based on the Indian value system, Indian history, and culture in order to strengthen domestic design and position India as a global manufacturing hub for toys.

The government devised a comprehensive action plan to boost local manufacturing and make India the global toy hub by incentivising the manufacturers. Establishing toy clusters across the country followed... R&D infrastructure for toys and games was strengthened. Subjects like Maths, Science and History were integrated into toy product development and production.

Sharad Kapoor, General Secretary of Toy Association of India said, “The Toy fair was first organised in 2009 where 116 stalls were put up in which 90 per cent of the stalls were of imported toys. This year, 96 stalls are put up and 100 per cent of them are selling Made in India’ toys. The Toy Industry, in reality, has acknowledged the Prime Minister’s call for “Rebranding the Indian toy story”.

As per the National Investment Promotion and Facilitation Agency, the Indian toy industry is estimated to be valued at approximately $1.5 billion making up 0.5 per cent of the global market share.

The sector is fragmented, however, with 90 per cent of the market lacking organization and 4,000 toy industry units from the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises sectors.

Observers say that the Indian toy industry has the potential to grow to $2-3 billion by 2024. The industry leaders are optimistic about the growth and are looking forward to making India the global export hub of toys.

Textile Industry

India scaled its highest ever exports tally at $44.4 billion in textiles and apparel (T&A) including handicrafts in fiscal 2021-22 (FY22), indicating a substantial increase of 41 per cent and 26 per cent over corresponding figures in FY21 and FY20, respectively. US was the top export destination accounting for 27 per cent share, followed by EU (18 per cent), Bangladesh (12 per cent) and UAE (6 per cent).

The Indian textile industry is one of the largest source of employment generation in the country that engages 16.73 lakhs of people consisting of 10.28 per cent of the total employment share. Today, the industry contributes to seven per cent of industrial output in value terms, two per cent of India’s GDP and 12 per cent of the country’s export earnings. The government aims to devise possible strategy to develop a facilitating ecosystem for growth of the Textiles Engineering Industry in India under Make in India and meet 75 per cent of domestic demand by 2026-27. The government has approved setting up of seven mega Integrated Textile Region and Apparel Parks with a total outlay of Rs 4,445 crores in a period of five years to attract cutting age technology and boost FDI and local investment in the sector.

Inaugurating a new NIFT campus recently, Piyush Goyal, Union Minister for Commerce & Industry, Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution and Textiles, said that the mantra of 5 F’s for the fashion industry that are Farms to Fibre to Fabric to Fashion to Foreign export are revised to make the Textile industry of India a strong name in the world. He also added that the government wants to create 75 textile hubs like Tirupur to commemorate Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav. Stating that the textile industry was a prominent economic backbone, these 75 districts should be selected by entrepreneurs and MSMEs to set up processing facilities across India. The small town of Tirupur in Tamil Nadu contributes about 90 per cent of knit-wear exports from India. Today, Tirupur exports cotton and cotton-blend T-shirts, dresses, sweatshirts, and other knitted clothes to the US, Europe, Australia and Canada. Tiruppur is home to 10,000 garment manufacturing hubs, employing over 600,000 workers who make hosiery, knitwear, casual wear and sportswear.

“Through this initiative we can provide jobs to a large number of local people. And this is how we ensure people not only depend on free food and electricity but also make a country of empowered youth.”

Automobiles gearing up

The automotive sector has played a key role in the success of the government’s Make in India initiative. Many global carmakers — such as Renault, Suzuki, Honda, Volkswagen — have set up their manufacturing base in the country. Continental Automotive India Private Ltd, the wholly owned subsidiary of Continental AG of Germany, is focusing on localisation to scale up its business, according to president and CEO Prashanth Doreswamy.

Automotive companies are embracing the opportunity to leverage India as a hub for low-cost, high-quality products. Over 500 million people are expected to be living in Indian cities by 2030. Clubbed with growing income levels, it is expected that India’s consumer class will expand, leading to higher spending on more and better vehicles across segments – providing automotive companies with a ready-made market.

The global automotive industry is undergoing a paradigm shift at present in trying to switch to alternative/less energy intensive options. India, too, is investing in this electric mobility shift. The burden of oil imports, rising pollution, and as well as international commitments to combat global climate change are among key factors motivating India’s recent policies to speed up the transition to e-mobility.

Catering to a vast domestic market, reliance on the conventional modes of fuel-intensive mobility will not be sustainable. In an effort to address this, federal policymakers are developing a mobility option that is “Shared, Connected, and Electric” and have projected an ambitious target of achieving 100 per cent electrification by 2030.

The electric vehicle industry in India is picking pace with 100 per cent FDI possible, new manufacturing hubs, and increased push to improving charging infrastructure. Federal subsidies and policy favouring deeper discounts for Indian-made electric two-wheelers as well as a boost for localized ACC battery storage production are other growth drivers for the Indian EV industry. Moreover, in September 2021, a production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme for the automotive sector was approved by Cabinet to boost the manufacturing of electric vehicles and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. India reported sales of over 300,000 EV units in 2021. To upskill talent and contribute to the nation’s ‘Make In India’ vision, carmaker Toyota announced the groundbreaking project of Phase II of Toyota Technical Training Institute that involves enhancement of skilling infrastructure by Toyota Kirloskar Motor and the line-up of it new e-drive manufacturing line. “The auto component industry and companies that have been selected under the scheme said that the incentive-based push will drive their localisation attempts and boost their export plans. The PLI scheme will help not just component manufacturers become globally competitive but will provide a much-needed impetus to the ‘Make in India’ initiative,” said Vinnie Mehta, director-general, Auto Component Manufacturers Association.With regards to the PLI scheme, Toyota said that this would provide impetus to the automobile sector to a greener future with advanced technologies, thus making India a strong manufacturing hub.

Pharmacy of the World

India's pharmaceutical industry has played a 'crucial role' during the Covid-19 pandemic and the country has cemented its position as a 'dependable nation' when it comes to health crises, according to health experts in India. The country's pharmaceutical market, which has been playing a key role in the global pharmaceuticals industry, was estimated at $42 billion domestically in 2021 and is expected to grow further in the coming years. India ranks third worldwide for pharmaceutical production by volume and exports pharmaceuticals to more than 200 countries and territories.

The Pharmaceutical industry currently contributes to around 1.72 per cent of the country’s GDP and major Segments of the Pharmaceutical Industry are Generic drugs, OTC Medicines and API/Bulk Drugs, Vaccines, Contract Research & Manufacturing, Biosimilars & Biologics. India has the second-highest number of US FDA approved plants outside the US. India is the largest provider of generic drugs globally.

PM Modi on Thursday lauded the healthcare sector in the country and said that global trust earned by the Indian healthcare sector has led to India being called the "pharmacy of the world". At the First Global Innovation Summit of the Pharmaceuticals he added: "Whether it is lifestyle, or medicines, or medical technology, or vaccines, every aspect of healthcare has received global attention over the last two years."

"In this context, the Indian pharmaceutical industry has also risen to the challenge. The global trust earned by the Indian healthcare sector has led to India being called the 'pharmacy of the world' in recent times."

As India is cementing Hyderabad’s position as the “Vaccine Capital of the World”, Biological E has announced its expansion plans for vaccine manufacturing with an overall investment of more than Rs 1,800 crore. This will provide job opportunities to more than 2,500 people in Genome Valley.

The expansion is primarily targeted to ramp up the manufacturing of vaccines along with generic Injectables and R&D.

Hyderabad city accounts for one-third of global vaccine production with a capacity of about 9 billion doses per annum. This investment from Biological E will enhance the capacity by 5 billion doses increasing the cumulative capacity to about 14 billion doses each year.

All of these activities will be located in Genome Valley which is India’s first organized cluster for Life Sciences R&D and Clean Manufacturing activities, with world-class infrastructure facilities in the form of industrial/knowledge parks, special economic zones (SEZs), multi-tenanted dry and wet laboratories and incubation facilities.

It is home to more than 200 companies with a scientific workforce of about 15,000 professionals including the presence of the marquee global names like Novartis, GlaxoSmithKline, Ferring Pharma, Chemo, DuPont, Ashland, United States Pharmacopeia, and Lonza amongst many others.

The vaccine has also received nod from the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) for emergency use authorisation for the 5-12-year age group.

— rhonita@khaleejtimes.com