It is indeed a worthwhile cause to promote domestic industry, so there is every reason to be vocal about the local, as the prime minister put it. However, that does not mean championing shoddy quality or excessive costs. The only way to ensure that local produce is of high quality and priced optimally is to benchmark local production against the global competition. Being global is necessary to produce quality local produce. This should not be lost sight of, in a frenzy of creative interpretation of the prime minister’s new mantra.
Multinational
companies want to know if they would be shut out from any and every
government tender that is below Rs 200 crore in value. Such tenders
could be for a great many things, ranging from medical supplies to
batches of vaccines to ventilators, to advanced machinery. If these
foreign company worries are valid, India would be forgetting the
experience of the pre-reform days when a range of Indian companies
existed, including in India’s public sector, merely to import
practically every single value-added component, add in some local screws
and come up with high-priced ‘indigenous’ products to stand tall as
local champions. The country and its industrial potential gain nothing
from such spurious indigenisation. Indian industry has to spend on
R&D, master high-quality production, value and keep upgrading its
human talent and compete against the best in the world, to emerge true
world-beaters, about whom Indians can be proud and vocal, in all
honesty.
India cannot gain global quality with a broken power system, banks too scared to lend, a dysfunctional bond market and customs clearance and ship turnaround at ports taking several times as long as in other economies. We have to fix these, to boost the local.
Social media is bold.
Social media is young.
Social media raises questions.
Social media is not satisfied with an answer.
Social media looks at the big picture.
Social media is interested in every detail.
social media is curious.
Social media is free.
Social media is irreplaceable.
But never irrelevant.
Social media is you.
(With input from news agency language)
If you like this story, share it with a friend!
Social media is young.
Social media raises questions.
Social media is not satisfied with an answer.
Social media looks at the big picture.
Social media is interested in every detail.
social media is curious.
Social media is free.
Social media is irreplaceable.
But never irrelevant.
Social media is you.
(With input from news agency language)
If you like this story, share it with a friend!
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