Jaitley rejects Rajan's criticism of Make in India

A word of caution by Reserve Bank of India governor Raghuram Rajan does not appear to have entirely gone down well with finance minister Arun Jaitley.

Earlier this month, Rajan had cautioned the government  against overdoing export orientation in the Make in India campaign. Jaitley said, “Whether Make in India is made for consumers within India or outside is not so relevant. The principle today says consumers across the world like to purchase products which are cheaper and are of good quality.” He did not take the name of Rajan.

Delivering the Bharat Ram Memorial Lecture, Rajan had said, “There is a danger when we discuss Make in India, of assuming it means a focus on manufacturing, an attempt to follow the export-led growth path that China followed.”

He was, he said, “Cautioning against picking a particular sector such as man-ufacturing for encouragement, simply because it has worked well for China. India is different, and developing at a different time, and we should be agnostic about what will work.”

Jaitley spoke extensively on manufacturing and the challenges it faced in India at a Make in India event here.