There is a contradiction in trying to attract foreign investors before reforming labour, land acquisition laws | The Indian Express

There is a contradiction in trying to attract foreign investors before reforming labour, land acquisition laws | The Indian Express

Written by Christophe Jaffrelot, Vihang Jumle |Updated: October 17, 2019 9:31:55 am

Christophe Jaffrelot is senior research fellow at CERI-Sciences Po/CNRS, Paris, professor of Indian Politics and Sociology at King's India Institute, London, and non-resident scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.  He offers valuable insights on South Asian politics, particularly the methods and motivations of the Hindu right in India.

Jumle is an associate at Ikigai Law, New Delhi

There is a contradiction in trying to attract foreign investors before reforming labour, land acquisition laws

Why has Make in India failed to deliver? First, a large fraction of the Indian FDI is neither foreign nor direct but comes from Mauritius-based shell companies. Second, the productivity of Indian factories is low.

The objective was, officially, to increase the manufacturing sector’s growth rate to 12-14 per cent per annum in order to increase this sector’s share in the economy from 16 to 25 per cent of the GDP by 2022. (Source: REUTERS/File)

Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Make in India campaign on September 25, 2014 with these words: “I tell the world, ‘Make in India’. Sell anywhere but manufacture here.” Modi aspired to emulate China — a country he had visited many times as Gujarat chief minister — in attracting foreign investment to industrialise India. The objective was, officially, to increase the manufacturing sector’s growth rate to 12-14 per cent per annum in order to increase this sector’s share in the economy from 16 to 25 per cent of the GDP by 2022 — and to create 100 million additional jobs by then.