A three-pronged strategy, despite short-term pain, will help India Inc realise the objectives of Atmanirbhar Bharat vision and become a key part of global supply chain, asserted Pawan Goenka, Managing Director, Mahindra & Mahindra.

He was addressing the 184th Chamber Day celebrations of Madras Chamber of Commerce and Industry online here.

Goenka pointed out that global supply chain realignment due to geopolitical events and partly due to Covid-19 was throwing up opportunities for India, A holistic plan with a stronger focus on three areas - Put India first, partnerships and longer horizon – will help grow the manufacturing sector, he said. “To me Atmanirbhar Bharat is not about making everything in India. The first thing is to take pride in what we do, being world class in products and services and innovating technologies. We have many success stories in auto and pharma sectors,” he added. In many sectors such as room air-conditioners, set top boxes, medical devices, electronic components, furniture and medical devices, India could easily leapfrog in the next few years. “Here, we need partnership approach between OEMs and suppliers and between OEMs and governments,” he stated.

Goenka is of the view that India should not try to do everything on its own. There are several other countries who could do better importing from them is not wrong. However, we should analyse why imports happen. Goods are imported mainly due to lower costs, capacity constraint and technology gaps. In many sectors, by improving the capabilities and industry-government partnerships, share of imports could be reduced significantly over a period.

“It is very difficult to believe that India is not capable of producing automotive glass, bearings, castings, gear box parts, and wheel rims at competitive costs,” he felt. OEMs, suppliers and the government need to work together to remove the disabilities get value added products into the country’s factories, he said.

India could grow faster in supply of EV components and software for the shared mobility services in this segment. While we have several advantages by way of huge domestic market, abundant raw materials and availability of skill sets, the road to Atmanirbhar is not easy. We need to work out what pain we should endure in the short term to achieve Atmanirbhar Bharat over the mid-term.

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