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!
