Day Before Additional 25% US Tariffs, PM Makes Pitch for Swadeshi, Make in India

A day before US President Donald Trump's additional 25% tariff kicks in, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday made a vehement pitch for swadeshi and Make in India that should help create jobs in the country.

Swadeshi should be everyone's life mantra and irrespective of who is investing, production must take place domestically, Modi asserted on a day when Japan's Suzuki Motor Corporation committed to invest over ₹70,000 crore in the country in the next five to six years.

The government's 'Make in India' initiative has created a favourable environment for both global and domestic manufacturers and the world will drive electric vehicles that are made in India, Modi said.

He was speaking after flagging off exports of Maruti Suzuki's first electric vehicle, the e VITARA, from the Hansalpur facility in Gujarat to over 100 countries and also inauguration of production of lithium-ion battery, cell and electrode manufacturing for strong hybrid electric vehicles.

"My definition of swadeshi is very simple: it doesn't matter whose money is invested, whether it is dollars, pounds, whether the currency is black or white, it doesn't matter to me. What matters is that in production, the sweat belongs to my countrymen. The money may be someone else's, but the sweat is ours," he asserted.

"By 2047 we will build such a Bharat that your future generations will take pride in your sacrifices, will take pride in your contributions," he added.

In that way, Maruti Suzuki is also a swadeshi company, he said.

The world will drive electric vehicles that are made in India, he said.

Today is a great day for 'Make in India' as e-vehicles made in the country will be exported to 100 countries. The world will drive electric vehicles that are made in India, he said.

The Make in India initiative has created a favourable environment for both global and domestic manufacturers, Modi said.

Lauding India-Japan ties, he said both countries are "made for each other".

Japanese automaker Suzuki Motor Corporation will invest ₹70,000 crore in the next five to six years in India to strengthen its operations in the country, its Representative Director and President Toshihiro Suzuki said on Tuesday.

Speaking at the event, Suzuki Motor Corporation Representative Director and President Toshihiro Suzuki said, "Suzuki will invest over ₹70,000 crore in India, over the next 5-6 years." Later, in an interaction with reporters, Maruti Suzuki India Chairman R C Bhargava said the investments would be to meet the company's target of achieving 40 lakh units annually.

"We are expanding to 4 million (units annually). So the expansion of 4 million units capacity, with all the supporting infrastructure and investment in R&D, and new technologies, all of that takes a lot of money," Bhargava said when asked about areas where the investments are proposed to be made.

About the finalisation of the second plant to be set up in Gujarat, which was announced last year for an investment of ₹35,000 crore, Bhargava said, "I am hoping we will be answering that question more specifically after the GST Council meeting (on September 4) because after that everybody will be making an estimate of what the impact of the GST decisions are going to be on future growth." He, however, declined to comment on the implications of the proposed changes in GST slabs.

Suzuki Group, of which Maruti Suzuki India is a part, has already invested over ₹1 lakh crore in India.

These investments have also led to the creation of over 11 lakh direct jobs in the value chain.

On the e VITARA, Bhargava said it will be for the export markets, and no timeline has been set for launching the vehicle in the domestic market.

Manufactured exclusively at Suzuki Motor Gujarat (SMG), a unit of Maruti Suzuki India, the first batch of export-bound e VITARA will be shipped from Pipavav port to the European region, including the UK, Germany, Norway, France, Denmark, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Sweden, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Austria, and Belgium.

On the reasons for Maruti Suzuki not launching the e VITARA in India as yet, Bhargava said, apart from meeting export order obligations, cost factors have played a part, as the price of the EV is still on the higher side, as the battery is imported.

Toshihiro Suzuki said the Gujarat facility, which serves customers across India and global markets, will soon become one of the world's largest automobile manufacturing hubs, with a planned capacity of 10 lakh units.

He further said, "We chose this facility to manufacture the e VITARA, our first BEV and make it a global production hub for this model. We will export this "Made-in-India BEV" to over 100 countries, including Japan and Europe." The company's second major milestone is the "start of production of India's first lithium-ion battery and cell with electrode level localisation, which are used in our hybrid vehicles", Suzuki added.

These are being manufactured at the Toshiba Denso Suzuki plant here, he added.

"With only raw material and some semiconductor parts coming from Japan, this is a big salute to Atmanirbhar Bharat. We will use a multi-powertrain strategy, including Electric, Strong Hybrid, ethanol flex fuel, and compressed biogas, to achieve carbon neutrality and climate change goals," Suzuki noted.