PMO to take stock of Make in India action points

NEW DELHI: Even before Prime Minister Narendra Modi gets back to India after a high-profile US visit, his office has already started work on deliverables pledged to Fortune 500 companies aimed at helping ease of doing business and ensuring that the Make in India campaign is a success.

Cabinet secretary PK Mishra will take stock of measures by 20 key ministries on October 1 to convert the manufacturing initiative’s slogan to on-the-ground development.

These ministries are the ones seen to be playing a crucial role in 25 sectors picked under the Make in India plan. "Starting from October, at least once every quarter, all 20 ministries will meet the cabinet secretary," a senior government official told ET. "They will give an update on progress made on specific action points for Make in India." Modi had assured CEOs on his US trip that their concerns over policy issues would be addressed immediately and efforts will be made toward deregulation. At the meeting, Modi was asked for clarity in taxation policy, a faster tendering process and less stringent rules for local manufacturing.

The heads of Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Textron and others called for a relaxation of the offset policy and simplification of the bidding process. Offsets are aimed at ensuring technology transfer as part of purchase contracts. The ministries will be monitored on goals that were set for them in December 2014 following the Make in India launch.



Various government departments such as steel, power, petroleum and shipping have been asked to identify components being imported in their sectors and devise a plan to manufacture these in India. The government had asked the ministries to fix procedures, incentives and finalise cabinet notes wherever required to translate these plans into action. "For each of these tasks, a deadline was set. Now is the time to start monitoring how far along we have come," said the official cited above.

Going forward, based on the recommendations of the World Bank, ministries will be given additional things to do.

The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) for instance has asked the Central Board of Direct Taxes to scrap the requirement for a company seal for PAN registration.

The Employee State Insurance Corporation has been told to provide proper identity cards to workers instead of temporary ones to reduce processes. DIPP has also written to the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation to reduce paperwork based on the World Bank’s suggestions.

The government wants all ministries to implement these measures by June 2016 to raise India’s ranking in the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business index. This is currently at 142 out of 189, something the Modi government has said it wants to improve. As part of this exercise, the government recently ranked states on ease of doing business.

India currently doesn’t feature among the top 100 countries on eight of the index’s 10 parameters.