Open Letter To The Government: Why We Must Promote ‘Make In India’ Post Covid-19 Mayhem

Covid-19 is a wake-up call to governments, businesses and citizens to make conscious choices in the interest of their nation.

With the problems that India and almost every country is facing due to China is unimaginable. We are also seeing alarming videos of Chinese people actively contributing to problems even now.

A nation of 1.3 billion can efficiently produce most of its requirements within India – at least finished products that are purchased by consumers. For example, bags, stationery, kitchen products, toys, apparel, cosmetics, masks and so on.

To support ‘Make in India’, we need to make information available to the consumer to make an informed choice – at the store or online.

We must insist that any product that is imported into India must have ‘country of origin’ stamped on it. Whether notebook or mobile phone or handbag or mask.

This puts the onus on the overseas manufacturer to do the needful.

Further, please make it mandatory for all online sites selling in India to necessarily state the ‘country of origin’ as a necessary part in the product description.

This will help the consumer to make an informed choice.

Any misrepresentation of this should be classified as a non-bailable offence for the Indian company along with one-year jail term and a suitable fine. The overseas company whose product was found without stamping should be blacklisted.

I wish to emphasise here that ‘country of origin’ should mean where the product was produced. Not necessarily from where it was imported, eg, if a Chinese company exports a product to Malaysia and then a Malaysian company exports it to India, the ‘country of origin’ must be mentioned as China.

In pre-Independent India, buying khadi was an act of patriotism. Now, buying ‘Made in India’ will be the new expression of patriotism.

Because of China, millions of Indians are now impacted. Some industries will take months, maybe a year to recover like tourism, events, apparel, restaurants and movie theatres, to cite a few examples.

After throwing every country into a problem, China is looking to boost its manufacturing by giving massive subsidies to its exporters. This will inflict a huge problem for India’s micro small and medium enterprises, which are already reeling under the impact of the lockdown and reduced business. We must look at the possibility of raising tariffs across the board on imports from China.

By this step of making ‘country of origin’ mandatory, the government can help Indian industry. The growth in industry will help revive employment and spending to revive the economy.

Covid-19 is a wake-up call to governments, businesses and citizens to make conscious choices in the interest of their nation.

This is an open letter to the government of India.