Make in India
Make in India is a flagship government initiative launched in September 2014 to transform India into a global manufacturing hub by attracting domestic and foreign investment into 25 (later expanded) key sectors, with the twin goals of increasing manufacturing's share of GDP and creating jobs.
The initiative was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and is administered by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT). It targeted raising manufacturing's share of GDP from approximately 15% to 25% by 2025 and creating 100 million additional manufacturing jobs. The lion symbol—designed as a walking lion made of cog wheels—became its iconic mascot.
Make in India identified 25 focus sectors in its first phase including automobiles, aviation, defence, electronics, pharmaceuticals, textiles, and railways. The initiative combined regulatory simplification, infrastructure development, skill development programmes, and active investment promotion through roadshows globally and the biennial Make in India Week in Mumbai. Defence manufacturing was a particularly high-profile pillar, with the government progressively raising the local content requirement and establishing two dedicated defence industrial corridors in Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.
The initiative had mixed results in its first decade. While India attracted record FDI inflows—crossing $83 billion in FY21 and $84 billion in FY22 (data for those fiscal years)—manufacturing's share of GDP remained stubbornly below 18%, well short of the 25% target. The challenge was multi-dimensional: infrastructure gaps, logistics costs, land acquisition difficulties, and skill mismatches all constrained industrial growth.
The initiative gained sharper momentum from 2020 onwards as global supply chains diversified away from China post-pandemic. Electronics manufacturing saw particularly strong traction with global players entering India. The PLI (Production Linked Incentive) Scheme, announced in 2020, became the operational financial mechanism underpinning Make in India's sectoral goals.
For equity investors, Make in India is relevant to capital goods, defence, electronics, contract manufacturing, and industrial real estate sectors. Companies positioned to benefit from government contracts, preferential procurement policies, and infrastructure spending often found themselves at the centre of thematic investor interest.