MIAMI, Mar 17: Thrust on technology and product development is crucial for government’s ‘Make in India’ initiative as without it India can never become a “true manufacturing nation”, according to a top Mahindra executive.
“If Make in India has to succeed, we also have to have thrust on technology and product development. Without having our own technology and products, one will never become a true manufacturing nation,” Pawan Goenka, Executive Director and President (Automotive and Farm Equipment sectors) at Mahindra told PTI here.
Goenka said that the Indian auto major is “very passionate” about the ‘Make in India’ initiative and is glad that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is putting thrust on growing manufacturing in the country.
He said unless equal push is given to boost technology and product development, a nation will remain a subcontractor for somebody. As a subcontractor, the focus is on labour cost arbitrage and that is not sustainable.
The top Mahindra executive said the previous government’s target of 25 per cent GDP coming from manufacturing by 2022 was a “far cry” since to achieve that, manufacturing has to grow at 14 per cent per year with a GDP growth of eight per cent for the next 8-10 years.
He said the ‘Make in India’ cannot be just about manufacturing and for the concept to succeed, the government also need to have technology and brand thrust.
“The Indian brand outside India for manufactured products is certainly not an aspirational brand in any product that you can talk about. How do you make an Indian product aspirational, how do you make Make in India something that you would want to buy because it is developed in India and not because it is low price,” he said.
A 360 degree thrust has to be given to manufacturing goods in the country, Goenka said.
He said that the ensuring ease of doing business in India is also not enough since this alone is not sufficient to get to ‘Make in India’. (AGENCIES)
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