PM Modi Pushes State-led Self-Reliance Race In Manufacturing

The message by Prime Minister Narendra Modi is clear. The country has to move towards self-reliance in manufacturing to meet domestic demands and all ministries have to make an effort in the same direction

By Damini S

New Delhi, June 12: In order to shield the country from global insecurities, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has asked the country's top bureaucracy to engage with domestic industry for identifying products that can be indigenously manufactured to reduce import dependence. At the same time, the Prime Minister has also insisted on maintaining the quality of home-made products so that they could compete in the global markets.

To promote aatmanirbharta and reduce imports, ministries and departments should hand hold industries to facilitate efficient manufacturing of identified products within the country, was Modi's advice during his meeting with Secretaries to the Government of India.

The message by Prime Minister Modi is clear. The country has to move towards self-reliance in manufacturing to meet demands and all ministries have to make an effort in the same direction.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has asked the country's top bureaucracy to engage with domestic industry for identifying products that can be indigenously manufactured to reduce import dependence.

The success of aatmanirbharta in certain key sectors such as electronics, mobile manufacturing and defence appears to have added to the Prime Minister's confidence to encourage all ministries/ departments/ states to engineer transformation in their respective jurisdictions.

Now, the move is to transition to the self-reliance pitch from a centralised national policy into a competitive, state-led economic race, believes sources.

Some of the states, however, have already acted in this direction. Like, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat have come up with dedicated medical device parks to drive self-reliance in active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and critical medical machinery, overcoming challenges of global supply chain disruptions.

Similarly, two states -- UP and Tamil Nadu -- have defence manufacturing corridors and there is a demand from more to capitalise on the new procurement reforms policy of the Ministry of Defence.

There is also a need to explore the possibility of having panels of accredited third-party assessors and auditors under the Quality Council of India (QCI) for certifying the quality of products and processes which can be used both by the government and private sector to promote trust and quality.

The action plan for implementing the decisions taken in the meeting was circulated to the Secretaries by the Cabinet Secretary.

The focus on quality would not just ensure availability of quality products in the country but also help address quality control hurdles faced abroad. Despite India emerging as a global production hub in some areas, quality control issues show up in global export audits in certain sectors like agriculture and high-tech manufacturing.

India ranks 10th in overall global quality infrastructure index. But, why do Indian products face rejection and other related issues if its domestic quality infrastructure is ranked in the top 10 globally?

Experts believe the setback is primarily due to Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) often bypassing voluntary standards because of the high cost of compliance involved in following the processes though institutional capacity and testing labs are excellent. Lack of policy synergy with global standards is another grey area, they added

This is not to take away the fact that the Quality Council of India (QCI) tracks 'ZED Certification Mapping (Zero Defect Zero Effect)’. While it's not an index in its true sense, QCI identifies and maps the volume of MSMEs across different states that adopt ZED quality certification.