Team Blitz India
NEW DELHI: Indian growth cannot be built on Chinese efficiency, external affairs minister S Jaishankar said on Wednesday, and backed building robust domestic vendor chains for the manufacturing sector.
“I think we should stop looking for a China fix. If we are really to sustain and take the economy to a different level we have to create a kind of domestic vendor chain that a serious manufacturing economy will do,” Jaishankar said at the launch of the book ‘Made in India: 75 Years of Business & Enterprise’ authored by India’s G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant.
The production-linked incentive scheme (PLI) is an effort to raise manufacturing capabilities in the country, he said.
The external affairs minister said India needs to get its focus back on manufacturing to take advantage in the post-pandemic world.
“There is no major country in the world which has sustained or enhanced its global position without some commensurate build up of manufacturing. I have always believed that this focus on services was actually an elegant excuse for being incompetent in manufacturing.” said Jaishankar.
He also said there is a need to look at the economy from a strategic lens and identify the right partners. “I see ‘Make in India’ not as an economic programme, not as a manufacturing programme. I see it as a strategic statement,” he added.
