‘Make In India’- Everything That’s Good And Bad About It!

After having been remained in news for long, I think no Indian now needs an introduction to the epic ‘Make In India’ campaign launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Yet, for people who still don’t know what exactly is the movement about, it is an initiative by the Indian Government to erect more industries across India, encourage Foreign Direct Investment into it, create multiple job opportunities and, in turn, increase the GDP of the country.

Of course, it’s mere description sounds quite luring and impressing. In fact, this is a one-of-a-kind initiative ever taken by the Indian government to speed up growth and prosperity in the country.

But, the initiative has an equal number of advantages and disadvantages. I won’t complicate it too much and hence try to explain the entire thing as simply as I can.

The ‘Good’

1. First and foremost, the initiative will help in increasing India’s GDP.

2. Secondly, and importantly, it will help create employment. Like, a lot of employment!

3. It will fuel exports from the country and thus help increase foreign exchange reserves with India.

4. The more the industries and companies coming up, the more it will attract investors to invest in Indian businesses.

5. With foreign investment, a huge amount of expertise and foreign technical knowledge will pour into the country. This knowledge, in turn, can be used and applied in other businesses to expedite growth and professionalism.

6. Last but not the least, it will enhance the standard of living of people. Since the initiative will play a phenomenal role in creating employment all over the country, people will be capable of earning more, thus fuelling an improved overall standard of living.

The ‘Bad’

If all the above points have made you fall in love with the initiative already, wait a second! Every coin has two sides and this one has a ‘bad’ side to it too.

1. The first and the greatest danger that the ‘Make In India’ initiative is going to cause in India is discourage the existing small businesses. When huge companies and Foreign Direct Investment will be welcomed in India, the small businesses and local stores here will have some strong and tough competitors to deal with. This can discourage them and even lead to their shutdown.

2. Intense industrialization in itself is a big threat to the country. With industries, comes pollution and a large number of other environmental threats! We have China as the living example for this! Many cities in India are already facing dangerous levels of pollution. In fact, the government is now trying to find solutions to curb the levels of pollution across the countries. For instance, we all know the ‘Odd-Even rule’ introduced by Arvind Kejriwal in Delhi.

3. It can lead to serious overcrowding in the cities. As mentioned above, the initiative is supposed to create countless new employment opportunities for people. And, in order to seek these jobs, people will obviously migrate from rural areas to cities. This, in turn, can lead to overcrowding, lack of basic facilities, unhealthy living conditions and sub-standard living.

4. More industries equal more threats of accidents. We already know what loss the Bhopal Gas Tragedy has done to us!

All in all, the ‘Make In India’ initiative can do good as well as bad to the country. The government needs to plan as to how many new industries would be constructed under the initiative and also decide upon the favourable locations for them.

Also, according to me, the first and foremost focus on ‘Make In India’, ideally, should be agriculture. In the race to become more technically advanced and self-dependent than any other country in the world, we are neglecting farmers and agriculture in our own country. For real self-dependence, we need to cultivate food in our own country first rather than technical and industrial stuff. Else, one day, we will have everything in our country, except food to eat. And we would have to import that from the world!

We hope such a day never comes to our homeland!