| | NOVEMBER 20218T he recently announced Union Budget was a crucial one. It was the first time in decades where a budget was announced in the backdrop of an economy that has contracted without precedent. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) further anticipates that India's GDP should shrink by around eight percent, per International Monetary Fund (IMF) gauges. It is imperative to now focus on bringing the economy back on track. With borders shutting down for close to a year, the supply chain was massively impacted. And while this posed several challenges, it also opened a tremendous opportunity ­ to create a self-reliant nation that can cater to domestic needs as well as export to make the economy bounce back. Historically though, India has always seen success in assembling products, rather than manufacturing something completely from scratch. A shift in this mindset is a long term journey, but will positively yield results over the years. I see the tremendous opportunity that is there in manufacturing within the country for domestic and international consumption. And while the government has announced a slew of measures to spur job creation in the manufacturing sector, it is imperative more than ever before that we make the `Make in India' story work, to enable the `Make for the World.'From a manufacturing perspective, our government is going in the right direction, however a little extra push can accelerate economic growth. · The Covid-19 crisis created a massive demand supply gap, and the only way to ensure that this is not a business challenge in future is to become self-reliant. Consumer electronics, healthcare, and durables are industries where there is a significant opportunity in the domestic consumption narrative as well. The declaration in the budget to bring 13 areas with an expense of Rs. 1.97 lakh crore on various schemes over five years will boost makers to extend CREATE A MANUFACTURING DRIVEN ECOSYSTEM TO ACCELERATE ECONOMIC GROWTHBy Jubin Peter, Co-Founder & Chairman, Qthree VenturesVANTAGE POINTJubin Peter
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