Integrate Foreign Trade Policy with 'Make in India' programme: Assocham

Industry chamber Assocham has suggested that government must utilize the opportunity to integrate proposed Foreign Trade Policy with the 'Make in India' programme, which would help in realizing its greater objective of making India a low cost global manufacturing hub. The apex trade association has suggested the country to prioritize its manufacturing focus on key sectors where India already has existing strengths like Auto, Textiles, Pharma, bio-tech etc and deepen its capabilities in creating strong global market share and mind share. It also insisted India to mandatorily provide incentives for Domestic Value Addition (DVA), which is the proportion of exports truly produced in India. While, lauding Textile Industry’s efforts in nearly doubling its DVA component from 8% in 1994-95 to 18% as of 2013-14, it pointed that electrical components and machinery exports were the industries which require adequate support  so as to dovetail these sectors strongly into the 'Make in India' theme. It noted that electronics was another key segment where India has a good talent base, domestic demand or consumption and necessary environment to create a strong manufacturing base. On GST front, the trade apex industry body opined that the government should adopt a dual model of GST one for the Centre (CGST) and one for the state (SGST) to grant autonomy to both states and the Centre, thereby creating a harmonious model acceptable to states and centre.