October 9, 2017

Two suggestions for 'Make' in India

You would agree that 5 year of working in a state govt industry & commerce department's single window cell are enough to understand its working to comment authoritatively on its efficiency & productivity. Well I have been there and done that. Therefore read the suggestions carefully.  India has long been relying on 5year plans to industrialse its mainly agriculture and services dominated economy. But the results offer no solace to any object analyst. All states in India have ‘single window clearance’ teams as part of industry and commerce department. 

Every ‘new’ Industrial promotion policy promises to end ‘inspector raaj’ and reduce harassment of entrepreneurs by providing all needed clearances in one place thus helping investor to navigate the paper maze in a profitable manner. But on the ground nothing seems to change since Dr Manmohan Singh liberalised the economy in early 1990s.  Present Hindu Nationalist govt in India made many promises before 2014 elections to remove the bottlenecks facing industry & commerce but their hammer & tongs approach to problem solving have further complicated the matters. Hence India is once again seemingly to fall back into hole of the Hindu rate of growth from which Dr Manmohan Singh rescued it. Question facing all industry commerce experts is how to find ways to jump start the new investments through large scale programme of industrialization.

It's not really very difficult to spawn a million MSMEs in India despite major socio-economic bottlenecks. Firstly the govt must those who are ready to set up a new business unit. Well yes its that simple. You wouldn't be surprised to know that many entrepreneurs visit govt single window services and district industry centers searching for solutions. And first question on mind of these greenhorns is ‘what are hot new profitable projects suggested by govt? ‘ it should be damn easy for industry facilitation officer of the govt to answer the question. Why it's not so is beyond logic, imagination. Govt can surely ask its officers or appoint a consulting service to draw detailed ready to use project reports for facilitating quicker decision making by the prospective investors. 

Agriculture officers of various govts work with farmers advising them on new crops and yield but such service in industry & commerce is missing. I recommend that the guys like Amitabh kant tasked with Make- in-India mission must wake up and provide tailored solutions for MSMEs through each state. Those visiting industry & commerce departments in any state must be followed up with and provided with several project feasibility Studies to spur industrialization mission. 

Secondly the central govt may engage one of India’s IT giant TCS preferably to create a competitor of Alibaba of China with thousands of downstream startups. These two are obvious suggestions besides many others could be researched and applied. Question is will the govt move beyond lofty speeches and window dressing to focus on the gargantuan challenge of creating new industries to provide jobs for huge unemployed Indians? Let's hope Indian politicians shift focus away from elections and get down to saving India.

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