Make in India fell short of its central promise: turning manufacturing into a much larger, broad-based source of economic growth and jobs. The government’s stated ambition was to raise manufacturing’s share of GDP to 25%, but official figures and retrospective assessments put it well below that mark. That is not the same as saying the programme achieved nothing: electronics and mobile-phone production expanded sharply. The more accurate verdict is uneven sectoral gains without evidence of an economy-wide transformation attributable to the initiative.
Why did Make in India fail?
The initiative, launched to facilitate investment, foster innovation, enhance skills, protect intellectual property and build manufacturing infrastructure, set an ambitious direction. A 2026 retrospective review by the Indian Institute of Sustainability and Public Policy Research (IISPPR) describes additional targets of 12–14% annual manufacturing growth and 100 million jobs. The programme fell short against its broadest tests: manufacturing’s weight in the economy, employment, and the spread of gains across firms and industries.
Five factors help explain that gap. They are explanations offered by retrospective analysis, not proof that Make in India alone caused the outcomes. IISPPR explicitly cautions that its approach identifies correlations between policy actions and results, not causal relationships.
1. The headline manufacturing-share target remained out of reach
The gap between the 25% ambition and the observed share is the clearest measure of the programme’s shortfall. The Press Information Bureau’s August 2026 factsheet puts manufacturing at about 16–17% of GDP. IISPPR likewise says the 25% target was not reached and places the sector around 15–17%.
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One related figure should not be mistaken for the same measure: IISPPR, citing the revised GDP series, reports manufacturing gross value added (GVA) rising from 14.5% to 16.3% between 2022–23 and 2024–25. GVA share and GDP share are distinct measures; they should not be combined into one trend. Both indicators nevertheless leave a substantial distance from the stated 25% goal.
2. Employment did not match the scale of the ambition
Manufacturing matters to household finances partly because it can create jobs beyond a narrow group of highly skilled workers. The retrospective review says the employment impact remained far below expectations. It reproduces a Centre for Economic Data and Analysis (CEDA) estimate based on the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy’s Consumer Pyramids Household Survey: manufacturing employment fell from 51 million in 2016–17 to 27.3 million in 2020–21, a decline of about 46%.
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This is a CMIE-based estimate, not an official government employment count, and the period includes the pandemic shock. It is evidence of a serious employment concern, but not a definitive measure of how many jobs Make in India created or lost.
3. Gains were concentrated rather than broad-based
Incentives and tariff protection helped some industries, but the IISPPR review says expansion did not extend across all industries. It also reports that establishments in the highest net-value-added class accounted for 59.9% of industrial output in 2023–24, compared with 52.85% in 2017–18.
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That change points to a question about who benefited from industrial growth: a rising share of output came from the largest value-added class of establishments. The statistic does not establish that Make in India caused greater concentration, but it is consistent with the wider concern that gains were not evenly distributed across firms.
4. Export and investment indicators did not show a broad shift to manufacturing
Export and foreign-investment ratios offer context, but neither is a direct measure of manufacturing output. Institut Montaigne’s 2024 report finds that merchandise exports declined as a share of GDP over the period shown below; that ratio does not mean the absolute value of exports fell. Its FDI comparison covers the economy overall, not manufacturing alone.
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| Indicator | Earlier period | Later period | What it measures |
|---|---|---|---|
| Merchandise exports as a share of GDP | 10.2% in 2013–14 | 8.2% in 2022–23 | Exports relative to the size of the economy, not absolute export value (Institut Montaigne, 2024) |
| Average FDI as a share of GDP | 2.14% in 2007–08 to 2014–15 | 1.76% in 2014–15 to 2022–23 | Economy-wide foreign direct investment, not manufacturing-only investment (Institut Montaigne, 2024) |
Institut Montaigne also says foreign investment was concentrated in a limited set of sectors, with services prominent. Taken together, these historical measures do not show the broad manufacturing-led export and investment transformation the campaign promised. They should not be read as current 2026 figures or as proof that manufacturing exports or investment declined in absolute terms.
5. Operating barriers and a diffuse design made scaling harder
Institut Montaigne identifies bureaucratic delays and corrupt practices, mediocre transport infrastructure, and inadequate workforce training as obstacles to manufacturing attractiveness. These constraints can increase the time, cost and uncertainty involved in building or expanding production, while skills gaps can make it harder to operate facilities at scale.
The report also notes that Make in India covered many sectors. A broad initiative can set direction, but the approach may be less focused on resolving the specific bottlenecks facing individual industries. The later move toward targeted production-linked incentive (PLI) schemes reflects a shift toward sector-specific support; it does not by itself prove that the earlier programme failed because it was broad.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Did Make in India work in any sectors?
Yes. Government figures show substantial expansion in electronics and mobile phones, an important counterweight to the weaker aggregate results. The table compares production and exports over the fiscal years reported in the PIB factsheet dated 14 August 2026.
| Measure | 2014–15 | 2025–26 |
|---|---|---|
| Electronics production | About ₹1.9 lakh crore | About ₹13.11 lakh crore |
| Electronics exports | About ₹38,000 crore | About ₹4.24 lakh crore |
| Mobile-phone production | About ₹18,000 crore | About ₹6.27 lakh crore |
| Mobile-phone exports | About ₹1,500 crore | About ₹2.59 lakh crore |
The same factsheet reports mobile-phone domestic value addition at 23% in FY 2023–24. It also says that three companies under the semiconductor programme had begun commercial production by July 2026. These developments indicate progress in selected industries and an emerging manufacturing ecosystem; they do not establish that domestic value addition is high across electronics or that the entire manufacturing base has transformed. The figures are government-reported sector measures, not independent proof that Make in India alone produced the gains.
How should the programme’s record be judged?
“Failed” is defensible if it refers to the gap between the headline ambition and broad-based results. It is too absolute if it implies that no industry grew or that every supported project failed. The measures above capture different things—GDP share, GVA share, employment estimates, output, exports and economy-wide FDI—and cannot be collapsed into a single success score.
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One free scan finds every outdated or missing driver and matches the right update for your exact hardware.Free scan · exact hardware match- Aggregate scale: manufacturing remains materially below the government’s 25% GDP-share ambition.
- Jobs: the available estimate raises a substantial employment concern, but it is not an official count and covers pandemic years.
- Breadth: selected sectors advanced, while the review describes uneven expansion across industries and firms.
- Attribution: the available assessments do not isolate Make in India’s causal effect from other policies, economic conditions or shocks.
For workers and households, the key distinction is between visible factory growth in a few sectors and manufacturing becoming a much larger, reliable source of jobs and income across the economy. The record supports the first in some industries, but does not show that the second broad ambition was achieved.
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