Ease of doing business should be priority

June 30, 2015 11:54 am

‘Make in India’ can be successful only if manufacturers in India are allowed the ease of doing business.
Rajeev Sharma, Head – Corporate Services and Strategic Planning, Mitsubishi Electric India___________________________________________________________________________
 Mitsubishi Electric India, the subsidiary of Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, offers a range of innovative and high-quality products and solutions in the field of factory automation, air conditioners, visual and imaging, power semiconductor and devices, photovoltaic solutions and transportation systems.
Huge business opportunityThe ‘Make in India’ initiative resonates well for the electric equipment and automation industry which had borne the brunt of an economic slowdown. Following the announcement of the initiative, several global corporations announced their decision to set up manufacturing plants in India. As is the case worldwide, many of these plants will rely on high level factory automation.
Sharing his views on ‘Make in India’ initiative Rajeev Sharma, Head – Corporate Services and Strategic Planning, Mitsubishi Electric India says, “We see a huge business opportunity emerging for our industry in providing electric and automation solutions. To cater to this increasing demand, our industry also in turn, will plan to invest more in setting up manufacturing facilities, research and development labs and roping in local manpower. The resulting domino effect will have a positive impact on the growth of the industry as a whole and manufacturing share in the GDP growth.”
Success mantraCommenting on how ‘Make in India’ can achieve success Mr Sharma says, ‘Make in India’ can be successful only if manufacturers in India are allowed the ease of doing business. “This means that they should be provided with a business environment that offers transparent policy changes, pursues an ambitious trade agenda, speedy environmental and bureaucratic clearances and an enabling infrastructure and of course, all this lowers the costs to doing business,” he explained.  “Manufacturers, in turn, should not only push for low-cost goods but also for quality and reliability, while focusing on making in India for the domestic market as well as exports.”   
Challenges before ‘Make in India’There are many challenges faced in the sector. However, Mr Sharma feels, entry barriers and high cost of capital are the major challenges that have slowed down manufacturing in recent times. “Apart from the entry barriers, lack of ease in doing business, land acquisition challenges, lack of labor flexibility and stability of policies, lack of skilled manpower, lack of enabling environment for business and trade facilitation, lack of capacity addition in the power sector to meet industrial energy demand are few factors among others things that need to be addressed to give a push to the manufacturing sector,” he adds.
Talking about the steps can be taken by the government to promote domestic manufacturing, Mr Sharma says, “The electric and electronic equipment industry is burdened with high cost of capital, non-availability of skilled labour and rising price of operational cost since the precision needed in such products is very high.”
In addition, non-facilitative tax and regulatory environment only makes things difficult. “To reduce this burden, the government should take steps toward nurturing skilled manpower across the country, working alongside private sector players towards enhancing research and development. Pushing for policies which boost investments is need of the industry,” Mr Sharma urges.
Mitsubishi Electric – strengthening manufacturing operationsMitsubishi Electric India is already working on the curve in the ’Make in India’ campaign. The company’s business in India started in the mid-1950s. With the passage of time, it is trying to  mould itself into the fabric of India and develop a range of innovative and high-quality products for the Indian market. These include air conditioners, visual information systems, photovoltaic (solar) solutions, transportation systems, automotive equipment, industrial automation machinery, semiconductors and elevators and escalators.
Mitsubishi Electric India has two operating manufacturing facilities in Pune where the Nexgenie range of PLCs are manufactured and a facility where CNC and Inverters are assembled. It has a manufacturing unit in Manesar near Gurgaon which manufactures and assembles automotive equipment. The company has also announced an investment of $ 8 million for a new transportation factory being set-up in the suburbs of Bengaluru. The factory will produce transportation equipment like traction inverters, motors and other electrical equipment for rolling stock, and it will also have equipment-maintenance facility.