THE MAKING OF MAKE IN INDIA

Did you know why India is in lockdown today even though we have managed to keep many districts out of the ambit of this pandemic? It is not because we worry that this virus will spread but because we don't have the efficient medical infrastructure. We are not even taking the risk of opening the economy full-fledged in green zones because our medical infrastructure doesn’t allow us. This is the situation even after the decades of independence.  During this time of the pandemic, we might have noticed people talking about how we can deal with this pandemic with limited resources? These reasons could have been convenient for us to blame on the decades of healthcare ignorance while dealing with this pandemic.

                            

But India chose not to stay with this argument of what had not been done earlier, instead, we followed the strategy of what next can be done to deal with this pandemic. I hope you remember a few days back the primary concern in the country was the availability of PPE kit. The same PPE kits which help our frontline warriors against COVID-19 to protect them from the infection of this virus. Here's what we did: instead of panicking with limited resources, we started manufacturing PPE kits amidst all limited resources and today in within two months, we emerged as the 2^nd largest producer of PPE kits after China. Had anyone ever thought that the same India which till the month of the march was producing zero PPE kits would produce 2 lakh PPE kits every day? But this is the reality today. This shows enormous potential India has but this is not the end if you think. According to a new report, IIT Kanpur is making PPE kits which cost around just Rs 100. Yes, the same PPE kits which often costs around tens of thousands are made this cost-effective which is beyond imagination. This should be enough for those to understand who are obsessed with China for cost-friendly items. In fact, according to News 18, India was dependent on other nations for imports for PPE kits and our production was zero but today the scenario is such that we have 111 indigenous manufactures and now we have an industry of worth 7000 crores. What is more impressive here is that we didn't have the machines to stitch the tapes in PPE kits but yet we did this task with the hot air blower which is usually used for soldiering. We also didn't have sufficient automatic weaving machines but we did this with manual weaving machines in garment manufacturing factories. This shows how India instead of bowing down in front of the obstacles of limited resources explored other options to deal with this severe pandemic.  The extensive production of PPE kits will not only help India but will also help the whole world and this has come as an opportunity for India to strengthen its economic scenario providing a vital push to the ambitious Make in India initiative of PM Modi. This new approach of India illustrates that resources can't become a hurdle in dealing with pandemic if there is potential. Had we left this pandemic on our limited resources, we would not have produced PPE kits, N-95 masks at this pace.

                           

Along with all these masks and PPE kits, according to TOI report, India starting from May this month has begun to work to produce 10 lakh made in India rapid testing kits every month after several organizations received a green signal from ICMR. All these war footing policies has not only helped India to diminish the imports but will also help us to emerge as health exporter during this time of the pandemic.

India has well succeeded to channelize this pandemic time as an opportunity to scale up the efforts of make in India with now around 1000 firms who are willing to exit China and looking at India to shift their business. In a recent move, business giant Apple is also planning to shift 20% of their productions to China. This pandemic has shown the caliber of India which remained unidentified since long and now we can truly say that maybe crisis can cripple our economy little but we have discovered the new ways of establishing economy amidst this crisis.