Make-In-India Initiatives Are Driving Growth In Manufacturing Sector, Says Ashwini Vaishnaw

Exports of manufacturing-based products have increased significantly due to the Make-in-India programme, leading to a huge growth in employment opportunities in the country, Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Thursday.

He also said that India is now providing job opportunities to about 14 lakh people in a month in the formal sector.

In a media briefing, the Railway Minister said that earlier the services sector used to dominate the export figures, but pharmaceuticals, mobile phones and merchandise have replaced it now.

He attributed the increase in the export of manufactured goods to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Make-In-India programme.

According to 2022-23 export data, of total exports of $762 billion, $453 billion came from manufactured goods and $309 billion from services, the minister said.

“This is a big turning point. It is a reflection of change in the country’s economy. Manufacturing-based exports impact a common man’s life. If we study the economy of countries like Japan and South Korea, we will see that they all, during their economic journey, focussed on manufacturing while moving from low-income to middle-income and then high-income,” Vaishnaw said.

He added, “If we study the growth period around the 1800 or early 1900 period of countries such as the US, Germany, France, the UK etc, we find that they also focussed on manufacturing for moving from low income to middle and high income.

“Countries that have passed through the growth phase, all gave importance to manufacturing. This is what Modi ji did as the first big economic programme, economic philosophy and economics thought that he launched, Make In India, which has a big place in that,” Vishnaw said.

According to him, manufacturing-based growth has enhanced employment opportunities which is obvious from the data of formal employment or the registration in the provident fund that has gone from 6 lakh monthly or around 70 lakh annually to up to 14 lakh to 15 lakh monthly or around 1.8 crores annually.

“This shows a big change in the economy. The goal of two crore jobs every year that Modi ji targeted is about to be achieved now and manufacturing is a big factor behind this achievement,” he said.

Vaishnaw said that 10 to 15 years ago, petroleum used to be exported in the maximum quantity and other products like rice, etc, used to come later in the list of top products for export.

“Today, we see a diverse spectrum of products which we export. Though petroleum is still at the top with $97 billion in exports, pharmaceuticals has become our number two product which we exported worth $19 billion. Iron and steel, with worth $13 billion exports, has become the number three product. Export of mobile phones has come at the fourth position with $11 billion,” Vaishnaw said referring to exports data of 2022-23.

He added that products like pharmaceuticals and mobile phones which used to be insignificant as exportable products, have now figured among the country's top four products for exports.

According to Vaishnaw, as per the current trend, this year India will export mobile phones worth $15 billion. “In another one or two years, you will find that exports of mobile, electronics and telecom will become top 2 or 3 products of the country,” he said.

Highlighting significant changes occurring in the areas of backward integration, Vaishnaw said that while mobile phone batteries will be manufactured in India, Tata is already manufacturing mobile casing.

"Just about nine years ago, electronics manufacturing was negligible in the country. Mobile manufacturing was practically not there; almost 98 per cent of mobile phones that we used were imported. In a short time span of nine years, our PM Modi's vision of 'Digital India', 'Make in India' and 'Startup India' has established India as a trusted value chain partner," Vaishnaw said