'Make in India' should not merely focus on manufacturing: Rajan

December 12, 2014 14:05

Sounding a note of caution against Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 'Make in India' campaign, RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan today said it should not focus only on manufacturing.

"I am...cautioning against picking a particular sector such as manufacturing 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," Rajan said while speaking at the Bharat Ram Memorial Lecture in Ficci.

He further said there is "danger when we discuss Make in India" as something which is focused on manufacturing, "an attempt to follow the export-led growth path that China followed. I don't think such a specific focus is intended".

Modi had announced the ambitious 'Make in India' programme at his first Independence day speech from ramparts of Red Fort to attract overseas investments and make the country a global manufacturing hub.

He said when India pushes manufacturing exports, it will have China to contend with and an export-led growth will not be as easy as it was for the Asian economies who took that path before India.

"...I am counselling against an export led strategy that involves subsidising exporters with cheap inputs as well as an undervalued exchange rate, simply because it is unlikely to be as effective at this juncture," he added.

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