In his 11th consecutive, Independence Day speech, PM Modi, pitched an idea for ‘Design In India, Design For The World’. Coining this phrase, he urged all to design world class products in India for both domestic and international markets. During his speech, he highlighted how India has the potential and the talent to become global leader, especially in semiconductor and the gaming industry.
PM Modi, called upon the youth to focus on designing. He said, “We should aim to design in the country for the world. The Indian standards should become international standards. The country has the necessary talent for achieving this goal.”
During his speech, he emphasised how there is a growing interest from global companies wanting to invest in India. He urged all to make use of this opportunity and urged the state governments to create conducive environment for attracting investments. “It is a golden opportunity to make India a global manufacturing hub,” he said.
Global Manufacturing Hub…
First and foremost, design is a resource intensive activity and unfortunately since independence there has been no focus on it. Under the then “License Raj System,” most of the private sector had to operate on a 30% profit margin with little or no link between academia and industry. In fact, there was once a time that a CEO of a Indian MNC said, “The whole process where people get an idea and put together a team, raise the capital, create a product and mainstream it- can only be done in the US. It can’t be done sitting in India”. However in the last 10 years, efforts are being made to not only bridge the gap between academia and industry but also towards making India, ‘Viksit’ by 2047.
With this ‘Design In India,’ initiative, India aims to position itself as a global manufacturing hub. It intends to not only produce or assemble but also conceive an idea and design a product on its own. The initiative is of great significance especially considering China’s dominance and western economies move towards reindustrialisation. Furthermore, it will help India in reducing its import dependency while enhancing its technological self-sufficiency.
While the semiconductor industry is still in its nascent stage. PM Modi highlighted the Huge potential in the industry with many local and global companies willing to invest. He pointed out that the country is currently training around 85,000 professionals in chip designing across 113 academic institutions. As of now, work on four semiconductor plants, three in Gujrat and one in Assam is underway.
According to Invest India, the government of India has announced a significant investment of USD 10 billion under the “Semicon India” Program for the semiconductor and display manufacturing ecosystem.
Then PM Modi, recognising India’s potential and its rich legacy w.r.t., ancient games and literature, urged the youth to leverage this and come up with “Make In India” gaming products. At present, India has 442 million online gamers. We are the second largest gaming user base globally, surpassed only by China.
Recognising the huge potential in this sunrise sector, PM Modi, urged the youth to not just lead in playing, but also in producing gaming products. He stated that Indian games must make their mark worldwide. “I urge IT professionals and AI experts to lead in gaming products. I also wish that India creates top-notch animators as this is a big global industry,” he said.
The gaming industry is a $200 billion market in which India currently accounts for 17-20% of the global gamers. According to Shiva Nandy, Founder and CEO, Skyesports, “Rapid smartphone penetration and affordable internet are driving a massive influx of gaming consumers in India. However, the market has been largely dominated by foreign titles due to a lack of homegrown games.”
He added, “The Indian government’s recent push for local game development is a crucial step in bridging this gap. It not only fosters a thriving domestic gaming and e-sports ecosystem but also leads to job creation in a promising field. With India’s potential, we can soon expect locally developed games to gain global recognition, and gaming can play a crucial role in India’s growth story of the 21st century.”
Design In India For The World…
Overall, building on the momentum and furthering the “Make in India” campaign. PM Modi, emphasised the significance of incorporating, “Design In India,” as a national strategy. With this, the next phase of value addition will happen in the designing aspect of manufacturing. So far, India has made great strides in production and assembly aspect of manufacturing. However, with this initiative, India will be able to develop its designing capabilities by leveraging its skilled workforce. Thereby, enhancing India’s industrial ecosystem. Finally, PM Modi’s call for “Design in India for the world,” will not only help us become more self-reliant but it will also counter China.
