For over a year now, secretary, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, has put his energy behind Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of Make in India and is now ready to take the campaign to the next level with a thrust on domestic investment, quality infrastructure and a stronger policy regime. In an interview with, Kant spells out details of the plan that aims to take Make in India centre-stage. Edited excerpts:The key achievement is that it has brought ‘ease of doing business’, opened the FDI regime and taken manufacturing centre-stage. We have improved our position in ease of doing business by 12 ranks, competitive spirit has been unleashed among states by the ranking process and India, from being one of the most closed economies, is now one of the most open economies of the world. Our FDI is up by 48% as compared to a global decline of 16%. When Make in India was launched, the manufacturing growth rate was at 1.7%. Today, it is 12.6%. It is a jump of 12 times. We have been ranked No. 1 investment destination by the Financial Times , EY, IMF, Frost and Sullivan, and Foreign Policy magazine. India has also been ranked as the world’s No. 1 destination (for investments ) by Wharton & BAV Consulting, beating Singapore, Ireland, Indonesia and Vietnam.In the past one year 50 mobile phone manufacturers have located to India. Besides that, Foxconn to Boeing to Airbus to JCB to Daimler to GE to IEKA to H&M are all here. Several companies such as Hyundai , Volvo, Ford, JCB, Cummins and Maruti Suzuki came looking at the domestic market but are now using India as a major export hub. India is undergoing a structural transformation. We are moving towards an economy based on productivity and efficiency.Make in India 2.0 will focus on domestic companies with a manufacturing thrust. We will focus on innovation and design to enhance productivity. Productivity improvement must make us cost-competitive in a globalised world. We will also focus on startups and help create the best ecosystem in the world for our young entrepreneurs. Besides, we must look at creating an environment which will help them penetrate into global markets from India.Both the prime minister and finance minister have gone on record to say that there will be no retrospective tax. It is a thing of the past. We need consistency, predictability and clarity in our tax policies. The finance ministry is aggressively working towards this. Tax disputes, unlike in the past, have radically fallen. We are sorting out all past disputes. We definitely need to correct our inverted duty structure so that our manufacturers are not put to any disadvantage.The key to Make in India success is to put in place quality infrastructure. We must, as a country, think big in terms of size and scale and execute them with speed. Under-capacity and mismanagement in India’s power transmission systems has been addressed. To encourage global trade , ports would require higher capacity, quicker turnaround and streamlined processes. Their linkage to inland transportation for seamless movement of goods calls for an upgrade. The dedicated freight corridors need to be completed by early 2018. We need much simpler export procedures. The government is working on all these in an integrated, holistic manner. In the past 68 years, we have created laws, rules, processes that have been detrimental to business and India’s growth. We have treated young entrepreneurs as criminals unless they prove otherwise. All this must go. We are, as a team, working to fulfil the PM’s vision of making India the easiest and simplest place to do business.Yes. Defence manufacturing is the key. Plenty has been done. Sixty per cent of defence items have been delicensed. FDI regime has been opened up – you can go up to 49% and in case of modernisation, you can take it to 100%. Not a single licence application is pending. We have cleared 137 defence licences till date. The defence offsets policy has been restructured and far-reaching changes are envisaged in the Defence Procurement Policy. Simultaneously, the railways has seen movement. Some of the biggest contracts for locomotives manufacturing have been awarded to GE & Alstom.We have done everything possible in the FDI regime. We now need to facilitate and work closely with international companies so that they do not face any hardships on the ground. Invest India is working very actively. It is now working like a good professional, aggressive investment agency. In terms of structural reforms we need states to bring in factor market reforms — land leasing, land pooling and easier labour laws.The global manufacturing scenario is evolving fast. Technological advances have led to dramatic increase in industrial productivity. We are in the midst of the fourth wave of technological advancement. We cannot afford to miss it. Big data & analytics, autonomous robots, simulation, system integration, cyber security, cloud, additive manufacturing, augmented reality are changing the manufacturing world. We have an advantage – we are a digital nation. We must adopt Industry 4.0. This will in the long run lead to productivity gains, revenue growth and employment and investment. India must have many layers of manufacturing – from Industry 4.0 to labourintensive manufacturing. Every state must excel based on its core competency. We must have 10 champion states growing at 12% plus.Who says private sector is not investing? Let me give you specific cases. Bharti, Birlas, Adani, Tatas, Reliance, ITC, Bharat Forge, L&T, Asian Paints, Thermax, Torrent – they are all investing. Why do some of you always have a sense of pessimism? We need optimism and faith in ourselves. We need Indian industry to drive India. Some companies are overstretched. Some banks are facing bad debts. These issues are being looked into. It is a matter of time before they are sorted out. Structural transformations take time. You don’t get results immediately. But when results start coming in they are on a sustained basis over a long period.Your question is factually incorrect. There has been a sharp decline in the value of projects that are stalled, abandoned or shelved as per CMIE from `4.02 lakh crore in FY15 to Rs 1.95 lakh crore in FY16. This shows investment climate has improved. The total number of investment proposals during the past eight months is higher by 27%. The composite (Nikkei/Markit Services Purchasing Managers’ Index) PMI output index climbed to 11 month high of 53.3% in January 2016. The Monster Employment Index for January 2016 is up 52% over January 2015. This indicates the Indian job market has started on a strong note.India’s ambition is to grow at high rates over a long period. This necessitates that good politics and good governance must converge and integrate. There must be national consensus on economic issues. GST is critical and bankruptcy code is necessary. We must have a uniform national market and we must allow quicker, faster exit. States are becoming champions of reforms. They are pushing for land acquisition and labour reforms. They don’t want to be held back on infrastructure creation and growth.I agree. Manufacturing cannot expand without a highly trained and skilled workforce. We have a young population and must reap rich dividend. The new Ministry of Skill Development and the National Skill Development Council have done an enormous amount of work and they have laid down standards and quality and working in partnership with framing providers across sectors. I am personally quite fascinated by the work being done by some private organisation like Wadhwani Operating Foundation. It has launched five high impact initiatives in India with the goal of creating and filling 25 million jobs in five years. Its National Entrepreneurship Network (NEN) has built a strong network with colleges, mentors and faculty that support young entrepreneurs.