Target: 100 million jobs in the manufacturing sector by 2022

In January 2014, the then Union Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma announced that India is looking to create as many as 100 million skilled jobs in the manufacturing sector by raising its share of GDP to 25 per cent from 16 per cent. He was speaking at the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos. That statement has set the tone for India’s Make In India campaign, which has become like a rallying cry for the Indian manufacturing industry.

India has traditionally relied on agriculture to boost the economy. While people have been flocking to the industries and factories, not enough movement is happening on that front to create a tangible impact on the productivity. In September 2014, industrial production has increased 2.5 per cent over the same month the previous year. In the past 10 years, industrial production has averaged 6.63 per cent from 1994 until 2014, reaching an all-time high of 20 per cent in November of 2006 and a record low of -7.20 per cent in February 2009, according to the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MOSPI).

With employment becoming one of the biggest social issues of recent times, it would do well to augur that the timing of the Make In India campaign is perfect. For a country that faced jobless growth for a major part of the past decade, the campaign was like a whiff of fresh air. With a pro-industry government at the Centre and a demographic workforce that is young and determined to make the cut, India is in a good position to beat China in the race to become the global manufacturing hub. But, for this to happen, India has to surmount major challenges, especially when it comes to industrial relations. This is what we attempted to find out through our cover story ‘Are we ready to Make In India?

The experts that we talked to for the cover story were unanimous about how Make In India campaign would help the industry to propel in the fast forward mode by many leaps and bounds. While they lauded government efforts, they felt that major changes are required in the labour laws, how we approach IR as a discipline and industry accepted standards for contract labour.

For the Big Interview section, we interviewed Wayne Brockbank, Clinical Professor of Business, Executive Education, Stephen M. Ross School of Business where he talks about the Theory of Opportunity and how HR professionals will soon bear the responsibility for helping to orchestrate the total flow of information around the firm. One of the major news developments of the month was Apple CEO Tim Cook’s coming out. While he is not the first business head to come out, Cook’s move has helped in channeling the momentum that the LGBT community has been building over the past few years. Besides our regular columnists, we also have a supplement on technology & analytics. As the year draws to a close, we believe that technology will change the HR function in ways that we can’t figure out. Talking about 2015, here’s wishing you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

As always, I would love to hear your views and suggestions about the current issue. Do send in your feedback.

Happy reading!

Esther Martinez Hernandez Editor-in-Chief