12 years of ‘Make in India’ in 12 metrics — Low and patchy impact on growth, employment & global share
Make in India completes 12 years since its launch on 25 September 2014, prompting an assessment across a set of manufacturing, trade, and investment metrics
Manufacturing's share of Gross Value Added has risen only marginally, remaining far below the original target set for the sector
Non-petroleum goods exports have grown in absolute terms, but India's share of global merchandise exports has stayed roughly flat for over a decade
Investment incentive schemes have shown concentrated success in a handful of sectors rather than broad-based manufacturing growth
Capacity utilisation in manufacturing continues to remain below the threshold typically associated with fresh private investment
National Manufacturing Policy, 2011 and the 25% GDP Target
The National Manufacturing Policy (NMP), 2011 was the first dedicated national policy aiming to raise manufacturing's contribution to GDP and was the direct antecedent of Make in India's industrial ambitions. It set the benchmark against which Make in India's manufacturing performance is still measured.
Key Details
- NMP 2011 targeted raising manufacturing to 25% of GDP and creating 100 million additional jobs
- Manufacturing's share of Gross Value Added stood at roughly 15.6% in 2025-26 (new GVA series), well short of the 25% goal
- The policy also proposed National Investment and Manufacturing Zones (NIMZs) as large integrated industrial townships, a concept later absorbed into Make in India's industrial corridor push
- Both NMP 2011 and Make in India (2014) share the same unmet structural target, making this a recurring UPSC theme on India's manufacturing-led growth strategy
The 12-year review shows manufacturing GVA share has barely moved from where it stood when Make in India was launched, indicating the NMP 2011 target has now been missed for over a decade under two successive policy frameworks.
Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme
The PLI scheme is Make in India's principal fiscal instrument for the 2020s, offering revenue-linked cash incentives to manufacturers to boost domestic production and cut import dependence, particularly in electronics and strategic sectors.
The sectoral concentration of PLI investment is cited as direct evidence for the "patchy" impact — gains are real but narrow, benefiting a handful of sectors rather than lifting manufacturing broadly.
Structural Transformation and the Employment Question
Classical development economics expects industrialisation to absorb surplus agricultural labour into higher-productivity manufacturing jobs — the East Asian "manufacturing-led growth" model. India's experience under Make in India is a standard case study in structural transformation falling short of this template.
Key Details
- Employment in industry as a share of total employment has risen by less than one percentage point over the Make in India period, despite absolute job creation (14.6 lakh jobs under PLI; ~25 lakh jobs supported in electronics manufacturing)
- India's non-petroleum exports grew 53% to $388.3 billion in 2025-26 from $253.5 billion in 2014, but grew faster (over 400%) in the 12 years preceding Make in India's launch
- Global merchandise export share rose from about 0.8% (2002) to 1.7% (2013) but has stagnated near 1.7% through 2025-26
- Private Gross Fixed Capital Formation as a share of GDP remains lower in recent years than in 2014-15, signalling continued private investment hesitancy
The metrics point to a structural transformation that has stalled rather than accelerated — manufacturing has not become the employment or export engine originally envisioned, a recurring Mains theme on why India has not replicated the East Asian manufacturing trajectory.
- Make in India launched: 25 September 2014
- Manufacturing GVA share (2025-26, new series): ~15.6%, against the NMP 2011 target of 25%
- Non-petroleum exports: $388.3 billion (2025-26), up from $253.5 billion (2014) — a 53% rise
- Global merchandise export share: stagnant at ~1.7% since 2013
- PLI scheme: 14 sectors, ₹2.4 lakh crore actual investment, ₹23.8 lakh crore production/sales, ₹15.2 lakh crore exports, 14.6 lakh+ jobs (as of March 2026)
- PLI investment concentration: ~83% in just 5 of 14 sectors
- Manufacturing FDI share of total FDI: rose from ~48% (2014-15) to ~55% (2025-26)