Until now, the flagship ‘Make in India’ programme has been a great marketing slogan but will the virus change that?

At the start of the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, several Indian companies were extremely concerned as factories began to shut down across swathes of China’s industrial heartland and Indian imports from Chinese companies were growing at a fast pace. Indian imports included not just smartphones or consumer electronics, as most suspect, but everything — from toys to batteries and even fuel-injectors, needed to meet the new stricter BS-VI emission norms for vehicles. Then, of course, there was the worry surrounding the pharmaceutical industry as most of the Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs), required for key drugs, came from China. Indian drug-makers import around 70 per cent of their total bulk drug requirements from China. As supply chains broke, Indian companies began to worry. So even those firms, which until now made ‘Make in India’ a huge success with their export-orientation, were left dependent on Chinese parts, ones that might be small in size and value but were critical. The aftermath of the pandemic will force large economies across the world to realise the fact that while such dependence is a result of a globalised world, so much reliance on China may not be a good thing. Ergo, the US asking India for supply of hydroxychloroquine instead of China is a result of just that. Can Indian policy-makers and diplomats leverage India’s position as a reliable and democratic nation to promote ‘Make in India’ once the world recovers from the pandemic? One certainly hopes so.

However, initially, the Chinese problem for Indian industry might become worse. As factories in China reopen while Indian manufacturing hubs remain closed, there is a lurking fear that once our country reopens, Chinese manufacturers will dump their products on us. It will take weeks, possibly months, for Indian manufacturers to get back their speed even with the reduced demand in the aftermath of the pandemic. Protecting Indian manufacturers from dumping has to be the Commerce Ministry’s number one priority. It must then use this as a pivot to boost manufacturing in India for the rest of the world. India should use its leverage with the White House, no matter what US President Donald Trump said, to get more preferential access to American markets and crucially attract more manufacturing. India should sell itself more aggressively to the rest of the world as well and also ease not just land acquisition but also permissions to establish manufacturing units. The entire global economy has taken a hit over the past three months and 2020 might be a “lost year” economically. But Prime Minister Narendra Modi is right, India must look at this as an opportunity rather than an economic disaster. The entire world will be in a state of flux for the next few quarters. India will suffer as well but we are to emerge stronger and more powerful. We can do that only if we take the right steps first.