MNCs have a vital role to play in helping make India the 2nd manufacturing hub and a significant part of the global value chain and supply chains in the current challenging situation. This was stated by Mr Amitabh Kant, CEO, NITI Aayog while addressing the Plenary Session on Enabling Policy Environment for MNCs in India at the National MNCs’ Conference 2020 organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry today.
He mentioned that India is the only country to attract 38 billion USD worth of FDI during the COVID period this year. It was during such challenging times that the Government undertook reforms in key sectors such as agriculture marketing and mining.
The recent rationalization of labor laws, disinvestment and asset monetization for attracting more investment particularly in infrastructure, called for greater participation of MNCs in the private sector, he said.
He agreed that in order to make advanced manufacturing which is export oriented in India a reality, increased investment in R&D and technology innovation, progressive Intellectual Property Rights and speeding patents’ approval was needed.
In his address, Dr Guruprasad Mohapatra, Secretary, DPIIT said that attracting FDI and increasing India’s integration in global value chains was a major focus for the Government during these times to help boost and revive the economy.
He stated that the quick response to the pandemic by setting up Project Development Cells within Ministries has sped up investment in key sectors. He also mentioned about the various other initiatives taken by the government such as revamped bankruptcy, labor and agrarian laws, PLI scheme, single window clearance for greenfield investment projects and issuance of quality control orders to provide a more business conducive environment.
He also mentioned that the Atma Nirbhar campaign launched amidst the pandemic is aimed at increasing local capacity, job creation and exchange of ideas through global partnerships. He encouraged MNCs to take advantage of the Production Linked Incentive scheme, Export Promotion Capital Goods scheme, Bonded manufacturing and warehousing scheme and the National Infrastructure Pipeline. He concluded that the Government was committed to work with Industry players in order to further build an ecosystem that would meet the economic needs of India and leverage the catalyst for capital, global competitive strategy, sharing of best practices and job creation that MNCs provided.
Mr Soumitra Bhattacharya, Chairman, CII National Committee on MNCs. In his introductory remarks, he congratulated the Indian Government for the recent reforms and committed towards an aligned and sustainable “jugalbandi” between the government and industry in order to increase FDI flows into India.
Mr N Venkatram, CEO, Delloitte India, stated that the Atma Nirbhar Bharat campaign was a remarkable way to revive the economy and MNCs are looking forward to being a part of this process. He mentioned that India’s large domestic market and incentive-based production in the electronics and automobiles sectors makes it a suitable destination for the next World Factory Hub. He suggested that MNCs must look into emerging areas such as technical textiles, defense, food processing through R&D linked investments and supportive financial and banking structures. He concluded that private-public partnerships in R&D that would boost capacity building and cost-effective technologies would attract more MNCs into India.
23 November, 2020
New Delhi