Made
in India?
SN
Chary highlights the lack of preparedness of India in setting up a solid
manufacturing base and exploiting its full potential
Indian
manufacturing is grabbing headlines in magazines and dailies all over
India for the right reasons. This sector of our economy was written
off as dead by most until recently; however, suddenly everybody is mentioning
industry in the same sector with profuse accolades as ‘global champions’.
The truth is somewhere in between: Indian manufacturing sector was never
dead, nor has it now metamorphosed suddenly into what people call a
world-beater.
SOLID
MANUFACTURING BASE
India has always had a solid base of manufacturing industries. Thanks
to the Nehruvian policies – however criticised they may be today – India
has had a whole range of basic industries like iron and steel, machine
tools, heavy electricals, earth-movers, electronics, aerospace, nuclear,
basic and bulk drugs, basic organic and inorganic chemicals, petroleum
exploration, petrochemicals and several others.
It is true that many of these industries that were in the public sector
turned out to be giant-sized, flabby and therefore less productive than
were expected, to the extent that today these are being disinvested
or privatised with a Ministry. However, the lead given by these industries
cannot be ignored.
Similarly,
the policy of setting up small scale industries and promoting them also
played a major role in promoting the budding industrialists in the private
sector, which otherwise could have been dominated by a few industrial
houses in the private sector. Also, in the past, several industries
in the private sector must have floundered through inefficiencies, ignorance,
lack of skills and lack of information. But, they have treaded a path
for other businessmen to follow. The point is, at this time we may perceive
these as being irrelevant or defunct, but these have served their purpose
of setting up a solid manufacturing base in our country.
CUSTOMER-FRIENDLINESS
AND LEARNING SKILLS
We had manufacturing industries then and we have manufacturing industries
now – the efficiencies and the technologies used have changed or improved.
There is no denying that here are, indeed, a few world-class industries.
But, the number of such industries is limited even now, despite all
the euphoria about our ‘newly found’ capabilities. In fact, capabilities
are something that we always had in abundance. We had the base or foundation.
What we lacked was the zest, the burning desire to make it globally,
to fill the available demand worldwide and to keep on growing exponentially.
We
also lacked and still lack a good understanding of the global market.
Then there’s the lack of understanding in comprehending the requirements
of the consumers worldwide. We are still woefully behind others in the
one characteristic that is so vital – customerfriendliness. We still
lack in another important attribute that is essential for success in
business today – ‘learnability’. This is the ability to learn, to listen
to the other person, and to finally arrive at an understanding of the
customer’s true needs.
POTENTIAL
EXISTS BUT UNFULFILLED
One
surely wishes that the pundits of the ‘boom’ be proved right. They say
that the exports ‘could’ multiply several times within a decade. They
say, for instance, that the garment exports could grow from $3 billion
to $50 billion within the next 10 years. No one can deny the potential
for exports worldwide.
The
world always had a tremendous potential for all kinds of goods – textiles,
garments, leather goods, engineering goods, auto components, automobiles,
bicycles, motorbikes, electrical and electronic machinery, watches and
clocks, and also base metals.
After
all India’s exports, including gems and jewellery, have always been
a fraction of a per cent of the world exports. So, the ‘potential’ has
always been there. The point is that this potential has never been exploited.
One has to look at the various reasons why it has not been realised.
.........CONTD
