Is Modi's "Make in India" All Hype?

Some of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's supporters claim that his "Make in India" campaign has brought India to the verge of becoming a manufacturing behemoth 69 years after the nation's independence. Others claim India is already a manufacturing powerhouse. Let's examine these claims based on data.


Manufacturing Ranking:

While India now ranks 6th in the world in terms of total manufacturing output, it still sits at a very low 142nd position terms of manufacturing value added per capita, according to the United Nations Industrial Development Organization's Industrial Development Report 2016.  Pakistan's manufacturing value added is ranked 146th by the same report.

Manufacturing Output:

India's 3% share of the world's total manufacturing output puts it at a distant sixth position behind China's 24%, United States' 17%,  Japan's 16%, Germany's 7% and South Korea's 4%.

The UNIDO data shows that India's manufacturing value added (MVA) per capita at constant 2005 prices increased from US$155.73 in 2005 to $168.42 in 2014.   However, as percentage of GDP at constant 2005 prices in US$, India's MVA decreased from 15.10% in 2005 to 13.85% in 2014

UNIDO reports that Pakistan manufacturing value added (MVA) per capita at constant 2005 prices increased from US$135.03 in 2005 to $143.84 in 2014. Its  MVA as percentage of GDP at constant 2005 prices in US$ decreased from 18.05% in 2005 to 17.41% in 2014.

India's manufacturing output declined 0.7% in April-June 2016-17

Make in India:

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has recognized how far behind India is in the manufacturing sector. His government's highly publicized "Make in India" is designed to Change that.

What does India, or for that matter any other developing country, need to boost its manufacturing output? Most experts agree on two essential pre-requisites for industrial development:

1. Energy and Infrastructure

2. Skilled Manpower

China's rapid industrialization over the last few decades has shown that the focus must be on the above two to achieve desired results. Has India learned from the Chinese experience? Let's examine this question.

Energy and Infrastructure Development:

"Infrastructure is the biggest hurdle to the ambitious Make in India program of the government," Standard and Poor Global Ratings Credit Analyst Abhishek Dangra told reporters on a conference call,  according to India's Economic Times publication.

"The government is scaling up spending, but its heavy debt burden could derail its ambitions to improve public infrastructure," the Standard and Poor report said.

India suffers from huge energy deficit. Over 300 million of India’s 1.25 billion people live without electricity.  Another 250 million get only spotty power from India’s aging grid, with availability limited to three or four hours a day, according to an MIT Energy Report. The lack of electricity affects rural and urban areas alike, limiting efforts to advance both living standards and the country’s manufacturing sector.


Skilled Manpower:

“India doesn’t have a labor shortage—it has a skilled labor shortage,” said Tom Captain, global aerospace and defense industry leader at Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, according to a Wall Street Journal report.

The WSJ report said that over 80% of engineers in India are “unemployable,” according to Aspiring Minds, an Indian employability assessment firm that did a a study of 150,000 engineering students at 650 engineering colleges in the country.

NPR's Julie McCarthy reported recently that ten million Indians enter the workforce every year. But according to the Labour Bureau, eight labor-intensive sectors, including automobiles, created only 135,000 jobs last year, the lowest in seven years.

Impact on Agriculture: 

Prime Minister Modi's focus on manufacturing is talking away resources and attention from India's farmers who are killing themselves at a rate of one every 30 minutes.

Majority of Indian farmers depend on rain to grow crops, making them highly vulnerable to changes in weather patterns. As a comparison, the percentage of irrigated agricultural land in Pakistan is twice that India.

More than half of India's labor force is engaged in agriculture. Value added per capita is among the lowest in the world. Pakistan's agriculture value added per capita is about twice India's. This is the main cause of high levels of poverty across India.

Chinese Experience:

China has shown that it is possible to make huge strides in manufacturing while at the same time achieve high productivity levels in agriculture.

On the manufacturing front, China has taken care of the basics like energy, infrastructure and skilled manpower development to achieve phenomenal growth.

As part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) development, Pakistanis are learning from the Chinese to replicate success in manufacturing.

The first phases of CPEC are focused on building power plants, gas pipelines, rail lines, roads and ports at a cost of $46 billion. At the same time, China and Pakistan are also focussing on skills training via vocational schools and Pakistan-China Education Corridor. These projects will lay the foundation necessary to ramp up manufacturing in Pakistan.

Summary:

Both India and Pakistan want to emulate the success of China in the manufacturing sector. The Chinese experience has shown that development of energy, infrastructure and skilled labor are essential to achieve their manufacturing ambitions. The South Asians must move beyond hype to do the hard work necessary for it. Pakistan is working with China via CPEC to make progress toward becoming a manufacturing powerhouse.

Related Links:

Haq's Musings

Auto Industry in India and Pakistan

UN Industrial Development Report 2016

Indian Farmer Suicides

China-Pakistan Economic Corridor

Robust Energy Demand Growth in Pakistan

Human Capital Development in Pakistan

Views: 1651

Comment by Riaz Haq on December 23, 2019 at 8:10am

Investor Jayant Bhandari: #Indians in the West are India's best. Those left in #India are unskilled. People who think India can ever compete with #China or even continue to grow without West's help do not understand ground realities. #MakeInIndia #Modi http://jayantbhandari.com/jay-taylor-india-china-hk-ff/

If I need to get plumbing work done in India, I do the job myself, despite that the cost of a plumber is a mere couple of dollars. In Canada, where a similar work might cost fifty times more, I might get someone to do the job. Why? Because the plumber in India will do a horrible job and will create five new problems. I started and ran Indian subsidiaries of two European companies. The so-called cost advantages of India always stayed an illusion. Anyone who thinks that India can ever compete with China or even continue to grow without constant technological help from the West has no understanding of the ground realities in India. Here is a conversation I recently had with Jay Taylor:


Indian government exists for the sole purpose of collecting bribes. Indian bureaucrats are lazy, incompetent, and sadistic, a case study on which I wrote here a few days back. But what one must remember is that India’s most fundamental problem is its tribal and unskilled populace.

https://youtu.be/H2a21SWjR9E

Comment by Riaz Haq on June 20, 2020 at 5:19pm

China: leading trade partner; contribute to 18 percent of India’s imports


https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/business/moneycontrol-research/ho...

(India's) Import dependency on China for a range of raw materials (APIs, basic chemicals, agro-intermediates) and critical components (Auto, Durables, Capital goods) is skewed. To give a flavour, out of the respective imports, 20 percent of the auto components and 70 percent of electronic components come from China. Similarly, 45 percent of consumer durables, 70 percent of APIs and 40 percent of leather goods imported are from China.

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Trade figures suggest that India is the biggest importer of Chinese consumer goods. India imports almost seven times more from China than it exports to it. India has huge trade deficit with China – its largest with any country. In 2018-19, India’s exports to China were mere $16.7 billion, while imports were $70.3 billion, leaving a trade deficit of $53.6 billion.

It needs to be acknowledged that China’s exports to India account for only 2% of its total exports, so even if Indians boycott all the goods imported from China, it will not make as big an impact on China. Data also suggests that China is India’s largest trading partner, but the trade is heavily skewed in favour of China. Thus initiating a trade war when Indian manufacturing ability is limited is not going to favour India.


https://thewire.in/trade/china-goods-boycott-atmanirbhar-bharat

Comment by Riaz Haq on November 22, 2020 at 1:23pm

As #Chinese imports soar in #India, what happened to #Modi’s #MakeInIndia hype? #Indian govt data shows #China's share of the total imports in India has gone up from 13.7% last financial year to 18.3% in the 6 months to September. https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/economics/article/3110755/chinese-im... via @scmpnews


China not only remains India’s biggest source of imports, its share of the total actually increased in the six months to September, government data shows
Indian traders and manufacturers are struggling to end their reliance on Chinese goods partly thanks to a lack of high quality, locally made alternatives


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Much of this has to do with the nature of India’s imports – more than half of which go towards producing finished goods – and the realisation that slogans popularised by Modi such as “vocal for local” might be easy to chant but are harder to put into practice.

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Last week, the Reserve Bank of India announced the country had entered into a technical recession “for the first time in its history”, after recording a contraction – this time of 8.6 per cent – for the second quarter in a row. Between April and June, Asia’s third-largest economy shrank by 24 per cent, official figures show.
Despite this, Modi recently claimed India’s economy was on its way to recovery and would achieve his government’s target size of US$5 trillion by 2024 from the estimated US$2.8 trillion it is worth at present. Economic forecasters at Oxford Economics, however, said on Thursday that growth would continue to stall at around 4.5 per cent until 2025.
The government stills looks determined to walk the route of ‘self-reliance’ though. A day after 15 nations signed the Regional Comprehensive Economic Programme (RCEP) without India, Foreign Minister S Jaishankar said the country was determined to move away from trade arrangements towards a “self-reliant India” policy to “consolidate comprehensive national power”. Despite repeated attempts to reach them, officials in India’s commerce ministry did not comment.
The result is a deepening crisis for India’s traders and manufacturers, one of whom told This Week In Asia on condition of anonymity that the country’s smallest enterprises were the ones suffering the most. “The government asked us to not sack employees but offered us little relief or stimulus. Where we need substantial relief, we got a moratorium on our loans,” he said, referring to the government’s US$265 billion in economic aid announced in May.

Comment by Riaz Haq on November 22, 2020 at 1:25pm

"India has entered a technical recession in the first half of 2020-21 for the first time in its history," as per the article titled 'Economic Activity Index', authored by Pankaj Kumar of the Monetary Policy Department. ... The RBI has estimated that the economy will contract by 9.5 per cent for the full fiscal year.

https://www.theweek.in/news/biz-tech/2020/11/12/india-may-have-ente....

India's GDP growth is likely to have contracted 8.6 per cent in the second quarter this financial year, rendering the economy in a state of recession, the first ever published 'nowcast' report of the RBI said. This means that India will enter into a recession for the first time in history in the first half of this fiscal with two successive quarters of negative growth due to the COVID-19 pandemic. "India has entered a technical recession in the first half of 2020-21 for the first time in its history," as per the article titled 'Economic Activity Index', authored by Pankaj Kumar of the Monetary Policy Department. 

A recession is a period of declining economic performance across an entire economy that lasts for several months. A recession is defined as two successive quarters of decline. India's economy had shrunk about 24 per cent in the first quarter ended June. 

Researchers have used the 'nowcasting' method to arrive at the estimates ahead of the official release of data and their views in an article in RBI's monthly bulletin released on Wednesday do not constitute the central bank's views. ‘Nowcasting’ is the prediction of the present or the very near future of the state of the economy. 

The government is due to publish official statistics on November 27. 

The pandemic-induced lockdowns had led to a steep contraction of 23.9 per cent in the GDP for the April-June quarter as compared to the same period a year ago. The RBI has estimated that the economy will contract by 9.5 per cent for the full fiscal year.

It, however, added that the contraction is "ebbing with gradual normalisation in activities and expected to be short-lived." The economy will break out of contraction of the six months gone by and return to positive growth in the October-December quarter of 2020-21. Incoming data for the month of October 2020 have brightened prospects and stirred up consumer and business confidence, it said.

“With the momentum of September having been sustained, there is optimism that the revival of economic activity is stronger than the mere satiation of pent-up demand released by unlocks and the rebuilding of inventories. If this upturn is sustained in the ensuing two months, there is a strong likelihood that the Indian economy will break out of contraction of the six months gone by and return to positive growth in the third quarter (Q3) of 2020-21,” it said.

The index is constructed from 27 monthly indicators using a dynamic factor model and suggests that the economy rebounded sharply from May/June 2020 with the reopening of the economy, with industry normalising faster than contact-intensive service sectors, it said. The economic activity index can be used to gauge directional movements in GDP growth well ahead of official releases, it said.

The article said despite the raging pandemic, preliminary estimates are showing a jump in household financial savings to 21.4 per cent of GDP for the June quarter, as against 7.9 per cent in the June 2019 quarter and 10 per cent in the immediately preceding March 2020 quarter. "The sharp increase is counter-seasonal and may be attributed to the COVID-19-led reduction in discretionary expenditure or the associated forced saving and the surge in precautionary saving despite stagnant/reduced income," it said.

Comment by Riaz Haq on December 16, 2020 at 11:03am

Wistron violence could sour #Apple's 'Make In India' plans. Thousands of workers angry over non-payment of wages, destroyed equipment and vehicles at a Wistron plant in southern #India, causing an estimated $60 million in damages. #Modi #MakeInIndia https://reut.rs/3npyHyy

Violence at a Wistron Corp factory in southern India is likely to stall the company’s and its client Apple Inc’s drive to expand local manufacturing, while forcing the government to redouble efforts to encourage foreign investors.


The Taiwanese company, one of Apple’s top suppliers, had been hiring in significant numbers at the plant that became operational earlier this year.

It assembled the second-generation iPhone SE there and was expected to start producing newer models, but the violence has led the company to shut the site and file a police complaint against more than 5,000 contract workers for destruction of property.

Wistron has not disclosed details, but one source familiar with the situation, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the area where smartphones are assembled and lines where delicate components, such as printed circuit boards, are mounted, have been damaged.

The company did not respond to a request for comment from Reuters. It said in a regulatory filing in Taiwan that it was doing its best to get the plant running again.

Apple also did not respond to a request for comment.

Two sources close to the situation, who asked not to be named because they were not authorised to speak to the press, said restarting could be difficult.

Comment by Riaz Haq on June 10, 2021 at 11:01am

#China’s #Trade Boom Continues in May on Strong Global Demand. #Exports to #India jumped more than 100% for the second straight month. Overseas demand for Chinese goods remained strong as economies from the U.K. to the U.S. emerged from months of lockdown https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-06-10/china-u-s-agree-...


China’s exports continued to surge in May, although at a slower pace than the previous month, fueled by strong global demand as more economies around the world opened up. Imports soared, boosted by rising commodity prices.

Exports grew almost 28% in dollar terms in May from a year earlier, the customs administration said Monday, weaker than forecast and below the pace in April, but still well above historical growth rates. Imports soared 51.1%, the fastest pace since March 2010, leaving a trade surplus of $45.5 billion for the month.

Overseas demand for Chinese goods remained strong as economies from the U.K. to the U.S. emerged from months of lockdown. Exports to emerging markets like India and in Southeast Asia, which have seen a resurgence in Covid-19 outbreaks, also climbed. South Korea’s exports, a bellwether for world trade, surged the most since 1988 in May, a sign that the global recovery is strengthening.

“It’s still a fairly healthy set of numbers,” Jonathan Cavenagh, senior market strategist at Informa Global Markets, said in an interview on Bloomberg TV. “We know that global demand is still recovering and that trend is likely to continue towards the end of the second quarter and into the third quarter as the major developed economies open up.”

Exports to the U.S. moderated, although still grew at a healthy pace of about 21% growth, while shipments to the European Union slowed to an almost 13% expansion. Purchases by Indian companies jumped more than 100% for the second straight month.

There was also a shift in categories driving export growth. Sales of household appliances and lighting grew, while there was a more than 41% drop of textile and fabric goods, which includes masks and protective clothing. These changes “seem to be consistent with our view that strengthening exports of non-Covid related products offset weakening exports of Covid-related products as global vaccination proceeds,” Goldman Sachs Group economists wrote in a note.

Comment by Riaz Haq on September 17, 2021 at 8:21am

#Ford wakes up badly burnt from its #India dream. #US #carmakers believed they were buying into a boom - the next #China. Now they are pulling out after heavy losses. #Modi #MakeInIndia #manufacturing https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/ford-wakes-up...

Comment by Riaz Haq on May 6, 2022 at 6:19pm

“Make in India” has failed, replaced by a government that never admits defeat with a call for “self-reliance.” Now, exactly 30 years after India turned away from central planning and liberated the private sector, the government is again handing out subsidies and licenses while putting up tariff walls


https://www.business-standard.com/article/economy-policy/why-india-...


One of Narendra Modi’s first promises when elected India’s prime minister in 2014 was to revive the country’s manufacturing sector. India had been de-industrializing since the early part of the century and policy makers correctly argued that only mass manufacturing could create enough jobs for a workforce growing by a million young people a month.

In his first major speech as prime minister, Modi invited the world to help: “I want to appeal all the people world over [sic], ‘Come, make in India,’ ‘Come, manufacture in India.’ Sell in any country of the world but manufacture here.”




The “Make in India” slogan quickly developed into a full-fledged government program, complete with a snazzy symbol — a striding lion made out of meshed gears. Government officials spoke at length about increasing foreign direct investment and improving the business climate to attract multinational companies. Careful targeting of the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business indicators raised the country 79 positions in the five years after Modi took office.


And, after all that, in 2019 the share of manufacturing in India’s GDP stood at a 20-year low. Most foreign investment has poured into service sectors such as retail, software and telecommunications. “Make in India” has failed, replaced by a government that never admits defeat with a call for “self-reliance.”

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The government’s defenders point out that its investor-friendly reforms weren’t answered; nobody came to “Make in India.” And, they ask, hasn’t China profited handsomely from subsidizing its own manufacturing sector?

Such arguments miss the point. Modi’s manufacturing push never went much further than gaming the World Bank’s indicators. No investor believes structural reforms, particularly to the legal system, have gone deep enough. India has a large workforce but too few skilled workers. To top it all off, the rupee is overvalued. Rather than work at solving these interconnected and complex problems, politicians in New Delhi have decided to paper over them with taxpayer money.

Perhaps picking winners has worked for China. What Indians know for certain is that it did not work here after decades of trying. Sure, public investment in sectors of vital strategic importance — electricity storage, perhaps, or cutting-edge pharma — is defensible. But when you start throwing money at every sector that you wish had developed on its own, then all you’re announcing to the world is that you’re out of ideas.

India’s haphazard foray into industrial policy is going to fail, just as “Make in India” did. And it’s likely to cost the country billions along the way.

Comment by Riaz Haq on May 6, 2022 at 6:23pm

Cause of concern! Bank credit to manufacturing declines

Bank credit to 10 out of the 15 sectors declined in the last decade, an analysis by MVIRDC World Trade Centre (WTC) Mumbai shows.

Comment by Riaz Haq on May 29, 2022 at 7:13am

Elon Musk won't manufacture Tesla cars in India because government prohibits selling and servicing of EVs
Indian leaders have made multiple failed appeals for Musk to bring Tesla to India

https://www.foxbusiness.com/economy/elon-musk-manufacture-tesla-car...


Tesla CEO Elon Musk said the company will not manufacture cars in India if the country does not allow it to sell and service its electric vehicles.

When asked by a Twitter user Friday if Tesla would be manufacturing a plant in India in the future, Musk said the move cannot happen under the country's current rules.

"Tesla will not put a manufacturing plant in any location where we are not allowed first to sell & service cars," Musk tweeted.

The team Musk hired in India last year has since been instructed to focus on the Middle East and the larger Asia-Pacific markets.


Musk's comments come as the Indian government has yet to accept his demand to reduce import duties on Tesla cars.

Indian leaders have made multiple failed appeals for Musk to bring Tesla to India.

"Our request to him is to come to India and manufacture here. We have no problems. The vendors are available, we offer all kinds of technology and because of that, Musk can reduce the cost," Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari said during the Raisina Dialogue 2022 conference last month, according to TribuneIndia.com.


"India is a huge market and offers good export opportunities too. Musk can export Tesla cars from India," he added.

Gadkari said in February that Musk must first manufacture in India before Tesla cars can be driven on the roads.

Musk had tweeted in January that he could not release Tesla vehicles in India yet due to "challenges with the government." And last summer, the billionaire posted to Twitter that he would like to launch Teslas in India, but the country's import duties are "the highest in the world by far of any large country."

India currently levies a 100% tax on imported vehicles costing more than $40,000, inclusive of insurance and shipping expenses. Cars that cost less than $40,000 face a 60% import tax.

Musk also said on Twitter Friday that SpaceX is waiting on approval from the Indian government to provide the company's Starlink satellite internet to the south Asian country.

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