Modi govt has been quietly following the idea of Aatmanirbharta for the past seven years

During the peak Covid period in May last year, Swedish automotive safety equipment supplier, Autoliv, was scouting for a land parcel of 50-60 acres to build a new manufacturing facility for airbag inflators. The company’s first choice was China or Vietnam but it was open to India as well. It set a few conditions — a reasonable land price plus the site’s proximity to a city and a port having licence to carry explosives. The last was required as the inflation of an airbag during a vehicle crash in volves the ignition of chemical propellants and stored gas.

Executives in Invest India, an investment facilitation agency under the Union Ministry of Commerce and Industry, proposed five sites to the company — three in Tamil Nadu and two in Andhra Pradesh. Finally, after multiple site visits, in September the company zeroed in on a 50-acre site at Cheyyar (or Tiruvetipuram) in Tiruvannamalai, Tamil Nadu.

Neeraj Mittal, MD and CEO of the Tamil Nadu Industrial Guidance and Export Promotion Bureau, told ET Magazine that Autoliv would invest about Rs 100 crore for this venture. Invest India CEO Deepak Bagla adds, “If a global company prefers India over China or Vietnam, it simply reinforces the India story.”

Autoliv’s foray into India for making airbag inflators, both for domestic market and export, is a classic example of Make in India. But the government’s manufacturing policy, as it stands today, has gone beyond inviting multinationals to set up factories in India.

Read more at: https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/economy/policy/modi-govt-has-been-quietly-following-the-idea-of-aatmanirbharta-for-the-past-seven-years/articleshow/81248310.cms