World not ready to Make in India? Samsung plant masks Modi govt's struggle

Despite a sleek marketing campaign, the world isn’t quite ready to ‘Make in India.’

Last week, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and South Korean President Moon Jae-in celebrated the inauguration of what Samsung Plant called the world’s largest mobile phone factory. At the splashy event just outside New Delhi, Modi said the facility was “extremely important” for his 'Make in India' initiative to boost manufacturing to 25 per cent of India’s economy by 2020 and create millions of jobs. Samsung said the plant was a “shining example” of the success of the program.

But the investment is more the exception than the norm. Data from the World Bank and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) show manufacturing hasn’t received a significant boost since Modi took office in 2014.

While India’s economy has overtaken France to become the world’s sixth largest, manufacturing has shrunk to about 15 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) from a peak of 18.6 per cent in 1995, according to the World Bank. Other data show new investments in India have dropped and stalled projects are on the rise.

Aadhaar doesn't pose any privacy issue and is worth emulating: Bill Gates

India's Aadhaar technology does not pose any privacy issue and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has funded the World Bank to take this approach to other countries as it is worth emulating, Microsoft founder Bill Gates has said.

The 62-year-old multi-billionaire entrepreneur and philanthropist said Nandan Nilekani, Infosys founder who is considered as the chief architect of Aadhaar, was consulting and helping the World Bank on the project.

Asked if India's Aadhaar technology is worth emulating by other countries, he replied, "Yes". "The benefits of that (basic ID — Aadhaar) are very high," he told PTI. More than a billion people in India have enrolled in Aadhaar, the world's largest biometric ID system.

"Yes, countries should adopt that approach because the quality of governance has a lot to do with how quickly countries are able to grow their economy and empower their people," Gates said in response to a question.

"We have funded the World Bank to take this Aadhaar approach to other countries," he said.

It is believed that several countries, including some from India's neighbourhood, have approached New Delhi for assistance in this matter.