PM Narendra Modi kicks off Make in India summit

The much-awaited Make in India summit, which seeks to encourage investors and companies to invest and get products manufactured in the country, was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a specially erected venue at Mumbai’s business hub at Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC) on Saturday. The Prime Ministers of Finland and Sweden and the deputy premier of Poland were also among the attendees. The presence of heads of states and business houses along with foreign delegates saw high levels of security, which inconvenienced visitors as well as mediapersons.

The event started with Mr Modi and other premiers cutting the inaugural ribbon to enter the venue that will house stalls of states as well business houses, both Indian and foreign, for the week-long event. Mr Modi and the other premiers then took a tour of the pavilion and also visited stalls and interacted with representatives. Though the ceremony lasted a few minutes, the tour saw dignitaries spend nearly an hour for the interaction. Mr Modi and the dignitaries visited the stalls of Tata Steel, ABB, Siemens and Sonalika, among others.

While neither Mr Modi nor any other premiers spoke with the media, Union commerce minister Nirmala Sitharaman, speaking outside the venue, said, “I can’t speculate on the number of memoranda of understanding that will be signed, but this is a brilliant start. All our partners are very enthusiastic.”

In all, around 2,500 international and 8,000 domestic companies are participating in the multi-sectoral industrial event that is being attended by foreign delegations from 68 nations and business teams from 72 nations. “India never had this kind of participation from across the world. FDI has grown by 48 per cent in recent months and it will continue to grow in the future,” said Amitabh Kant, secretary of the department of industrial policy and promotion.

Later in the day, Mr Modi had bilateral talks with the Prime Ministers of Sweden and Finland and Deputy Prime Minister of Poland.

On the first day itself, three deals worth Rs 21,400 crore with various companies were inked by Maharashtra. Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis said that the ‘Make In India’ vision led to different states adopting “competitive federalism”. “The Make In India vision has changed the outlook of the entire country. There is a fair competitive atmosphere across states throughout the country. The states are now moving from co-operative to competitive federalism,” said Mr Fadnavis after Mr Modi launched the Make In India Week. Mr Fadnavis also attributed the success of Make In India to the ‘Make In Maharashtra’ initiative.

The Prime Minister also spoke about the Make In India initiative being successful due to the government’s decision to deregulate and simplify doing business in India.

Meanwhile, the morning launch had its fair share of trouble for visitors as the overzealous security personnel stopped and refused entry to visitors despite them having proper passes. The main road in BKC was closed for security reasons and vehicular traffic had to take a detour to go to Bandra or Kurla at the other end. Public transport like BEST buses and rickshaws were also forced to take the detour. “The detour has cost me an additional Rs 20, as the rickshaw had to take a right turn from Asian Heart Institute and exit near the American School,” said Naim Shaikh, a resident of Bandra (east) who wanted to go to his workplace at Kurla.

Later in the day, many visitors who had registered for various seminars on the Make in India website were shocked as the security personnel did not allow them to enter the venue. “The people were miffed by the attitude of the police and the situation could have gotten out of hand due to frayed nerves and heated arguments between the visitors and security personnel,” said Akshay Shah, a visitor.

Important Pacts Inked After inaugurating the Make In India Centre Expo in Mumbai on Saturday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi held bilateral talks with the Prime Ministers of Sweden and Finland and Deputy Prime Minister of Poland. In his talks with his Swedish counterpart Stefan Lofven, Mr Modi invited Swedish companies to forge partnerships in the fields of defence, electronic goods, medical equipment etc. During his interaction with the Finnish Prime Minister Juha Sipila, Mr Modi invited Finland's active participation in engineering, power plants, biotech and innovation. Putting technology to good use, the two Prime Ministers tele-inaugurated the new state-of-the-art manufacturing unit of Trivitron Healthcare in Chennai. Mr Modi recalled the long association of his home state Gujarat with Poland through Jamnagar during his bilateral talks with the Deputy Prime Minister Dr Piotr Glinski. Mr Modi discussed areas of cooperation in food processing, clean energy and transportation sectors. Three key MoUs related to the state were exchanged at the Make In India Expo in the presence of Mr Modi. The MoUs are between Sterlite Group company, TwinStar Display Technologies and MIDC to set up an LCD manufacturing unit known as Panel FAB, with technical collaboration with Autron of Taiwan. The project entails investment of Rs 20,000 crore. The location of the plant will be decided shortly. The second MoU was signed between Hindustan Coca Cola Beverages Pvt Ltd and Jain Irrigation Pvt Ltd and the state department of agriculture and marketing for setting up a juice-manufacturing facility to support farmers growing oranges in Vidarbha. The project intends to give a higher value to orange growers. It is expected to benefit 5,000 farmers with an average landholding of two acres each. The third MoU was between Raymond Industries and MIDC as part of the ‘Farm to Fabric’ initiative. Raymond intends to invest Rs 1,400 crore for manufacturing of linen yarn and fabric and garmenting. The unit will be set up in Nandgaon Textile Park at Amravati district and it will procure cotton from the beleaguered farmers in the district and Vidarbha.