Make in India has become "Make-Believe in India": Jairam Ramesh on GDP report

New Delhi [India], December 2 : Congress MP and party's General Secretary (Communications) criticised the Central government on Monday for failing to "boost private investment in manufacturing," as quarterly GDP growth report for the July-September quarter of the current financial year 2024-25 showed the Indian economy slowing to 5.4 per cent.
"The GDP growth figures released three days back for the quarter July-Sept 2024 revealed a dramatic fall in the GDP growth rate. These depressing results are ultimately a result of the Modi Government's failure to boost private investment in manufacturing," Jairam Ramesh said in a statement.
"The hype over tax cuts and production-linked incentives does not match the reality. Make in India has simply become Make-Believe in India," the Congress leader's statement read.
He also highlighted that the report on GDP growth also mentioned that manufacturing growth also slowed down to a "shocking 2.2 per cent."
"Equally noteworthy and concerning is that manufacturing growth slowed to a shocking 2.2%. Meanwhile, export growth has also decelerated to 2.8%. The data belies the dismal reality of the Prime Minister's decade-old promise to make India a new global hub for manufacturing exports," read his statement.
The Congress MP further said that despite the central government's flagship Make in India scheme was launched ten years ago, the manufacturing and exports are simply faltering.
"The unfortunate reality is that ten years after the Government's flagship Make in India scheme was launched, India's manufacturing is stagnating, and our exports are faltering," he said.
He mentioned Share of manufacturing in India's Gross Value Added has fallen from 18.1% in 2011-12 to 14.3% in 2022-23.
Also mentioning unemployment, he said that manufacturing jobs have also decreased as workers in the sector fell from 51.3 million in 2017 to 35.65 million in 2022-23.
Also highlighting that exports in garment sectors have specifically fallen from $15 billion to $14.5 billion from compared to 2013 to 2022, meanwhile Bangladesh and Vietnam surpassed India in the sector.
"In the all-important employment-intensive sectors like garments, exports have fallen from $15 billion in 2013-14 to $14.5 billion in 2023-2024 and India has been lefty way behind by countries like Bangladesh and Vietnam," he said.
Further talking about how Chinese imports are destroying Indian manufacturing he said that over a third of stainless steel Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) have been closed due to the imports.
"In sector after sector evidence has piled up on how continued cheap imports from China are destroying Indian manufacturing--over a third of MSMEs in the stainless steel production industry in Gujarat alone are lying closed on account of such imports from China," he added.
Comparing the country's share of global exports from the previous decade, he said that the exports were in "much better shape," during the Prime Ministership of Manmohan Singh, as the country's "share of global exports grew much faster in the 2005-15 period."
According to a report by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation's official data released on Friday, real GDP in Q2 of 2024-25 is estimated at Rs 44.10 lakh crore, against Rs 41.86 lakh crore in Q2 of 2023-24, showing a moderate growth rate of 5.4 per cent. The quarterly growth was quite lower than RBI's forecast of 7 per cent. Last year same quarter, India grew 8.1 per cent.