Make in India

Make in India, launched on 25 September 2014 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is a government‑driven programme that seeks to transform India into a global manufacturing hub. By pledging to raise the manufacturing share of GDP from roughly 16 percent in 2014‑15 to 25 percent by 2025, the initiative couples foreign‑direct investment (FDI) incentives with regulatory reforms to generate millions of jobs and diversify export earnings. Its distinctive feature is the “single‑window” clearance system that channels approvals through the DPIIT‑run Invest India portal, thereby compressing the time required to start a factory from months to weeks.

Origins and Legislative Context

The policy rests on a series of legislative changes that began with the Companies Act 2013, which opened 100 percent FDI in manufacturing under the automatic route for the first time. The subsequent amendment to the Foreign Exchange Management Act 1999 in 2015 removed sector‑specific caps on foreign equity, enabling the DPIIT to advertise “greenfield” projects without prior government consent. In parallel, the Labour Codes (2020) consolidated 44 pre‑existing statutes into four codes, streamlining compliance for manufacturers and aligning India’s labour regime with international standards.

Mechanism and Incentive Structure

Make in India operates through a digital “single‑window” platform that integrates land‑allocation, environmental clearances, and utility connections, cutting the average approval count from 46 to 9 as reported by the World Bank’s 2022 Doing Business survey. The Production‑Linked Incentive (PLI) schemes, unveiled in the 2018‑19 Union Budget, allocate a total outlay of ₹1.97 lakh crore (≈ $24 billion) across 13 strategic sectors, with incentives ranging from 5 to 15 percent of incremental sales. Complementary measures include the “Ease of Doing Business” reforms that introduced online filing of GST returns in 2017 and the establishment of 30 new industrial corridors, each spanning 500 kilometres, to improve logistics efficiency.

Key Provisions and Sectoral Focus

The automotive PLI, announced in 2019, earmarks ₹13 000 crore for electric‑vehicle production, targeting a 30 percent rise in domestic output by 2025 and an estimated 2 million jobs. In electronics, the scheme promises ₹10 000 crore to attract $30 billion of investment, a move that underpins Apple supplier Foxconn’s $1 billion iPhone assembly plant in Tamil Nadu announced in 2023. Defence and aerospace receive a combined ₹15 000 crore under the “Make in India Defence” push, with Hindustan Aeronautics securing a $2 billion contract for indigenous fighter‑jet components in 2022.

India’s Journey Since Launch

According to DPIIT data, cumulative FDI inflows attributable to Make in India reached $65.5 billion by March 2020, while the fiscal year 2021‑22 recorded a record‑high $81.72 billion, a surge partly credited