External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Wednesday stated that the Indian economy cannot grow on the back of Chinese efficiency and that businesses have to stop looking for “China fixes.” He was speaking at the launch of the book “Made in India: 75 Years of Business & Enterprise” by India’s G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant.
According to the former diplomat, no major country has sustained or enhanced its global position without increasing manufacturing, and India too needs to do the same. He emphasised that India cannot allow other countries to subsidise their production or benefit from our advantages.
He mentioned that the government is committed to building deep manufacturing supply chains. ‘Make in India,’ he observed, is not just an economic programme but a strategic initiative.
“I think this country will never be a great country if it is not a great manufacturer. I think that is something we need to understand. I think we need to stop looking for a China fix. That Indian growth cannot be built on Chinese efficiency,” the foreign minister remarked.
He proclaimed, “If you are really to sustain and take the economy to a different level, we have to create a kind of domestic vendor chains that a serious manufacturing economy will do. I know that it is not something which will happen overnight but I can tell you as someone in the government, someone in the economic affairs cabinet committee, we take as a priority that how do you build deep manufacturing supply chains which will be needed to do that.”
He pointed out that the government’s attempts to revitalise the economy and encourage enterprises to feel that it is viable to produce in this country included the implementation of the Production Linked Incentive Scheme (PLI).
“There is no major country in the world which has sustained or enhanced its global position without some commensurate build-up on manufacturing. I always believed that this focus on services was actually an elegant excuse for being incompetent in manufacturing,” he commented.
The necessity to strengthen the indigenous industrial sector was also addressed by him. “In the name of opening the economy and globalisation, we should not end up de-industrialising this country. We should not allow level-playing fields in this country for others who subsidised their production. That is not a level playing field. That is economic suicide,” the union minister affirmed.
“We need to be clear. Every country must support its manufacturers, must support its businesses. We must not let other businesses enjoy advantages in our country at the expense of our own,” he voiced.
He postulated that strong business is not only about economics but also a critical segment of national security. “I fully accept there are experiences and analogies that we can take, best practices we can take from the rest of the world,” he conveyed.
“But at the end of the day, we will have to think through our growth strategy for ourselves. We will have to think through solutions to difficulties for ourselves. If you look at the last decade, every time we have actually confronted a major challenge,” he explained.
Referring to issues experienced by India during the COVID-19 epidemic, he divulged the government received assistance from overseas on how to economically tackle the pandemic.
“Honestly I would say I am glad we did not listen to much of it. I think how you come up with your own solutions, that is something which is important,” he informed.
He highlighted, “It is important for India to move to a strategic economy, have a clear sense who are our partners, where are our opportunities, where should we focus on our technology tie-ups.”
In order to stress that business or economics is sometimes actually too serious to be left to the businessmen and economists, he uttered the phrase “War is too serious to be left to the generals.”
“It is important to have a larger strategic direction. To my mind, I see ‘Make in India’ not as an economic programme, not as a manufacturing programme, I actually see it as a strategic statement,” he added.