Rising Bharat Summit 2024: India now a major export hub, Cong wasted 4 decades, says IT Min Ashwini Vaishnaw

While speaking at the News18 Rising Bharat Summit 2024, Union IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw offered some strong rebuttals to the allegations levelled by the opposition. While doing so, the minister also tore into the opposition, claiming that Congress wasted the first forty years of India after its independence.

He further went on to say that right after Independence, India’s manufacturing and policies were very stifling. Minister Vaishnaw also showed how despite global headwinds, India’s manufacturing industry is growing, stronger by the day, and also creating massive employment opportunities.

On Manufacturing vs Assembling
When confronted with the allegation that India isn’t really manufacturing anything, but merely assembling things, Minister Vaishnaw explained how every industry has its own lifecycle and that the foundations of India’s manufacturing industry should have been laid down long ago.

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“Let’s take the auto industry as an example. When the industry started in India in the mid-1980s. We first had CKDs or completely knocked-down units. Then we had SKDs or semi knocked-down units,” the minister said.

“We then slowly developed an ecosystem of different component manufacturers, which then grew over time. Slowly thereafter, we started exporting. It is a cycle and had the previous Congress governments laid down the foundation of all of this in the 1970s, India would have already been a major manufacturing destination,” added Minister Vaishnaw.

“India lost its first four decades because of the Congress government and their policies that stifled India’s already frail manufacturing industry,” the minister claimed. They had spun such an intricate web of laws, red tapes and regulations that even if someone had the means to set up a manufacturing unit, they couldn’t, the minister claimed.

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“Before the 1990s, the situation was so bad, that if a manufacturer wanted to change the design of a basic, simple component, like a door handle, you would have to take permission from an official of the Indian government,” he continued.

India a major exporter of tech
“Today, India stands at a juncture where the foundations upon which India wil be built as a manufacturing destination, has been laid down and in the next 5 years it will only grow,” said Minister Vaishnaw

Minister Vaishnaw then went on to show, how India is already becoming a manufacturing force to be reckoned on a global scale claiming, “If we consider mobile manufacturing, it went fro ma negligible number to over USD 55 billion in the last 10 years. Similarly, electronics is seeing an output of $105 billion, and this is growing in double digits.”

In terms of exports too, India has grown significantly. In just a few years, India’s defence exports have grown to $2 billion. This, from a point in time where we did not have any serious equipment export, is a pretty significant development.

Similarly, India’s telecom manufacturers had exports worth $1 billion, and that number too, is quickly growing. “It is hard to fathom this, but once, an industry veteran of the Indian telecom sector with experience of over 35 years they could have never imagined that India would have its own telecom manufacturing.”

“Today, we are exporting all sorts of things, all over the world. Clearly, the opposition has no clue what they are talking about,” he said.

On how the tech industry is creating jobs
When asked about the opposition’s allegations that the growth that the government of India speak of is jobless, Minister Vaishnaw replied, “Just look at the numbers from the EPFO. Factor in all those who have joined, those who have quit, and those who have rejoined the workforce after a hiatus — the net number of all these people, the total job opportunities was about 6,00,000 people per month a few years ago. “

“Today, on average that number stands at about 12,00,000 a month. That’s about 1.44 crore job opportunities. Ask the people from the opposition if these numbers are fudged in any way or form. Several economists have verified not only approved the methodology but also verified the numbers,” he said.