48% growth in FDI after Make in India: Sitharaman

Govt taking steps to remove constraints faced by exporters

During 19 months of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government’s rule, foreign direct investment (FDI) has grown at 48 per cent, when many other countries witnessed a drastic fall, Commerce & Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Monday.

Sitharaman told Business Standard: “The government has incessantly pushed policy measures to boost manufacturing. Make in India is a way in which we are showcasing India’s strengths in the identified 25 sectors, which were announced when the initiative was launched. Sectors such as defence, railways, real estate for construction have been opened up. Besides, the finance ministry is working on the National Infrastructure Investment Fund. So, the focus areas have been defined. We are also bringing in better rules for FDI, relaxation of norms and identifying sectors within those identified sectors.”

According to the minister, Make in India is an initiative through which mindsets are being changed and new processes brought in.

The Centre is no longer looking at it as a regulator, but a facilitator, she added. She was speaking after releasing the schedule for Make In India week planned from February 13 to 18 at the Bandra Kurla Complex in Mumbai.

On falling exports, Sitharaman said she has been in constant dialogue with industry in this regard. “All of us do know the extraneous factors that cause exports to fall, particularly (slowdown in) economies where we have been traditionally exporting to. It is not just the dollar versus the rupee... Even with a limited fall in rupee, realisation from exports suffers. Currency volatility is becoming almost a norm that Indian exporters are facing. These are not the things where India, from the government’s point of view, can make any difference by intervening,” she added.

Sitharaman said the government was taking a number of steps to help exporters, who currently have wait for a long time to get their commodities out of the country owing to Customs-related issues etc. “We are working at all of them so that those constraints are removed,” she added.

She noted that the Centre had announced foreign trade policy and interest equalisation scheme, but it often takes six-to-eight months for the actual beneficiary to get the benefits. “These two schemes, which are primarily aimed at boosting and hand-holding of exporters, cannot be assessed as yet. But, they will induce more exports,” she added.

To a question on whether the Make In India initiative would find place in the Budget, she replied in the affirmative. She added the Budget would also focus on the Startup India programme recently announced by the Prime Minister.