Make in India a positive initiative: Suresh Narayanan
Chairman and managing director of Nestle India Suresh Narayanan says there is a strong rationale for promoting attracting investments into the country
New Delhi: Make in India is a positive initiative with considerable potential, says Suresh Narayanan, chairman and managing director, Nestle India Ltd. In an interview, he says all it needs is infrastructure, enabling policies, a transparent and conducive regulatory mechanism, among others. Edited excerpts:
Do you think Make in India is the right initiative for promoting manufacturing in India?
Nestle has been in India for over a century now and I can say that the Make in India campaign is one of the largest concerted drives, orchestrated at a global level, to market India as an investment destination. I believe that the initiative is promoting manufacturing in real terms. If we look at the Indian economy, manufacturing accounts for roughly a fourth of the total GDP. For us, to transition to a developed economy we will need a substantial reduction in poverty. For this, we have to create jobs and a majority of these jobs will be created through manufacturing. Nestle has always believed in India’s potential, with a diverse industrial footprint of eight state-of-the-art factories. We endorse, and in fact are humble testimony to the immense opportunity that the country offers for Make in India as exhibited to the world. However, we cannot expect things to change overnight. We have to be consistent in our approach, persistent in our efforts and transparent in our systems to achieve the change we wish to see.
Do you think this is viable?
There is every reason to believe that Make in India is a positive initiative with considerable potential. There is a strong rationale for promoting manufacturing and attracting investments into the country. As with all policies and programmes, this needs to evolve with time. Infrastructure, enabling policies, a transparent and conducive regulatory mechanism and other such measures will surely accelerate the pace of this.
What do you think are the weaknesses of the initiative?
The significant strength of this programme has been its sheer scale and magnitude of the footprint it seeks. Today, there is interest on how to leverage the India opportunity. From building consensus at the national level for key reforms such as a unified Goods and Services Tax (GST), development of skills, fostering an enabling regulatory framework, all assist in ease of doing business.
What should the government do to make this campaign successful?
The ease of doing business is critical. A conducive business environment, level-playing field of policies, directions and incentives will need to go along with the availability of skilled and trained resources. All these are clearly possible for us as India to put together to forge a dynamic future for the initiative.
Has the initiative had any adverse impact on the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) industry so far?
I would say that the overall impact from a sentiment and interest perspective is positive. However, as things progress, we hope to see it have a bigger and more positive impact on the industry as a whole.
But you faced the Maggi crisis and most of Nestle’s products are made in India.
I don’t think that the government had a double standard on the Maggi issue. In fact, on some occasions quite the contrary. For example, the dynamic minister of food processing industries had clearly articulated her position and called for setting up transparent systems of checks and balances. Throughout the period, we had been working with the regulatory and the government authorities at the centre and the states. We are glad that the recent announcements by the FSSAI (Food Safety and Standards Authority of India) on ‘Proprietary Products and Additives’ is a positive step in enabling the food processing industry.
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