Twelve years after its launch, Make in India stands as an important part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of building a stronger, more self-reliant and globally competitive India. The initiative, launched on September 25, 2014, was conceived to make India a global hub for manufacturing, design and innovation. Over the years, this vision has expanded beyond increasing production. The focus has increasingly moved towards building domestic capabilities, strengthening supply chains, encouraging innovation and developing technologies that can support India’s long-term industrial growth.
Make in India now covers 27 sectors including 15 manufacturing and 12 services sectors. A range of government initiatives, including Production Linked Incentive (PLI) schemes, PM GatiShakti, the National Single Window System and the India Industrial Land Bank, have supported this broader manufacturing strategy.
The scale of the transformation can be seen in the latest government figures. Manufacturing gross value added at constant prices recorded a compound annual growth rate of 10.88 percent between 2022-23 and 2025-26 under the revised national accounts series. The manufacturing component of the Index of Industrial Production grew 7 percent during April-July 2026 compared with the corresponding period of 2025.
Prime Minister Modi has repeatedly emphasised manufacturing, innovation and domestic capabilities as important elements of India’s economic development. The idea behind Make in India has gradually evolved from encouraging companies to manufacture in the country to creating an ecosystem in which Indian industry can design, develop and produce increasingly sophisticated products.
Electronics provides one of the clearest examples of this transformation. Electronics production increased nearly seven times from about Rs 1.9 lakh crore in 2014-15 to around Rs 13.11 lakh crore in 2025-26. Mobile phone production increased approximately 32 times during the same period, from about Rs 18,900 crore to nearly Rs 6.3 lakh crore.
India is now the world’s second largest mobile phone manufacturer by volume. Electronics production grew 15.8 percent in 2025-26 over the previous year. According to the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, overall electronics manufacturing was estimated at about Rs 11.33 lakh crore in 2024-25, compared with around Rs 9.52 lakh crore in 2023-24. Electronic goods exports rose from Rs 2.41 lakh crore in 2023-24 to Rs 3.27 lakh crore in 2024-25.
The transformation extends well beyond electronics. Automobile, pharmaceutical, steel and defence manufacturing have also recorded substantial growth. Vehicle production reached 31.03 million units in 2024-25, around 33 percent higher than in 2014-15. Passenger and commercial vehicle production each increased 65 percent compared with 2020-21, while three wheeler production rose 71 percent and two wheeler production increased 30 percent.
The pharmaceutical industry’s annual turnover reached Rs 5.08 lakh crore in 2025-26, while pharmaceutical exports stood at Rs 2.63 lakh crore. Domestic medical-device manufacturing increased from about Rs 28,000 crore in 2019-20 to Rs 41,500 crore in 2024-25.
In steel, crude-steel production increased from 81.7 million tonnes in 2014-15 to 170 million tonnes in 2025-26. Defence manufacturing has also emerged as an important component of the self-reliance agenda. Indigenous defence production increased from Rs 46,429 crore in 2014-15 to a record Rs 1.78 lakh crore in 2025-26.
One of the most significant aspects of the manufacturing journey is the growing emphasis on developing technologies and components within India. ISRO and Semiconductor Laboratory have developed the VIKRAM3201 and KALPANA3201 microprocessors for space applications. The VIKRAM3201 is described by the government as the first fully Make in India microprocessor qualified for the harsh conditions of launch vehicles.
Solar manufacturing capacity has also expanded sharply. Solar module manufacturing capacity increased from 2.3 GW in 2014 to 192 GW as of June 2026, while solar-cell capacity increased from 1.2 GW to about 30 GW. Capital goods manufacturing has similarly strengthened. Production across heavy engineering equipment and various capital goods sectors increased from Rs 2.87 lakh crore in 2019-20 to Rs 5.70 lakh crore in 2024-25.
These developments reflect the broader direction of the vision associated with Make in India- developing not just the ability to assemble products, but the technological and industrial capabilities required to create them.
Here, the Production Linked Incentive schemes have become a major policy instrument in this effort. Covering 14 sectors, the PLI schemes had attracted Rs 2.6 lakh crore in investment and generated Rs 23.8 lakh crore in production and sales by June 2026. They had also supported more than Rs 15.5 lakh crore in exports and 14.6 lakh jobs.
The policy focus is also expanding towards strategic areas. The government has allocated Rs 7,280 crore for manufacturing sintered rare-earth permanent magnets, Rs 33,660 crore under the Bharat Audyogik Vikas Yojana for 100 industrial parks, Rs 62,500 crore under the Mobile Phone Manufacturing Scheme and Rs 1.275 lakh crore under Semicon 2.0. These initiatives are aligned with the larger objective of strengthening India’s domestic industrial ecosystem and reducing vulnerabilities in critical supply chains.
The manufacturing vision is being supported by efforts to make investment and industrial activity easier. The National Single Window System now provides access to more than 327 Central and 3,452 State approvals across 34 States and Union Territories. The India Industrial Land Bank has mapped 4,220 industrial parks covering about 6.98 lakh hectares. PM GatiShakti is being used to improve coordination in infrastructure planning and connectivity. Such measures are important to the larger Make in India objective because manufacturing growth requires not only factories, but also land, logistics, infrastructure, approvals, skilled manpower and reliable supply chains.
The Make in India journey reflects an ambitious vision articulated by Prime Minister Modi, which is positioning India as a country capable of producing for both its domestic market and the world. The figures across electronics, automobiles, pharmaceuticals, steel, defence, renewable energy and capital goods show the expansion of India’s manufacturing base. At the same time, investments in semiconductors, rare-earth materials and advanced technologies indicate an effort to move into more technology-intensive areas.
The significance of Make in India therefore lies not merely in the increase in the number of products manufactured in the country. Its larger ambition is to build an ecosystem of Indian capabilities- from technology and components to skills, infrastructure and global supply chains. As India enters the next phase of this journey, the vision of a manufacturing-led, self-reliant and globally competitive India continues to shape policy and industrial priorities. The progress recorded over the past 12 years provides a substantial foundation for that larger national ambition.
