“With regard to duties, the questions are around non-tariff barriers along with tariff barriers… And frankly they should (be there) because that will put Indian manufacturing in a much stronger place,” he said.
He was responding to a question on whether India needs to impose import tariffs on companies such as Tesla as they look at entering the Indian market.
Emphasising that it has to be done together because if it is cheaper to manufacture cars outside the country, Indian companies will look at it and want to go to overseas markets, put up a plant and start importing to India, he said. “So it is quite a complex topic from their standpoint and therefore it is something that needs to be addressed because we want to export to the world and for that to happen we need FTAs around the world,” Shah said.
Responding to what it will take for India to start eking out a niche in the global market, he said it has already started happening “but for it to happen consistently and at scale, it starts with ambition”.
“And what we are seeing is a vision for a Viksit Bharat that requires manufacturing to grow 16 times in the next 23 years and exports to grow 11 times in the same period,” he said.
“To make that happen, we need quality, ease of doing business and a lower cost of doing business. And there are a number of initiatives that at Ficci we have been working on with the government… in terms of the progress, we are seeing the efforts. We are seeing they’re all there and we are very bullish,” he said.
“If you look at the automotive industry, we are competing with all global majors in India. Some have exited, some continue to stay, and Indian companies are actually doing extremely well. At Mahindra we have tripled capacity in the last four years and we still cannot keep up with demand,” Shah said.
“So I would argue that we are actually in a much better place than we were. If we look at the tractor industry, Indian companies make up 80 per cent market share despite all global companies being in India for the last 20 years. And therefore, there is something that’s out there for Indian companies,” he added.