Twelve years after Prime Minister Narendra Modi planted a flag for Indian manufacturing, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma is reminding the world just how far that bet has travelled — declaring on Friday, 25 September 2026, that 'the world now makes in India, the world now relies on India.'

A flagship scheme turns twelve

Make in India was launched in September 2014 by the Modi government with a single, audacious ambition: pull global manufacturers off the sidelines and anchor their supply chains on Indian soil. At the time, India's share of global manufacturing was modest and foreign investors were wary of regulatory complexity. The programme set out to dismantle those barriers — slashing red tape, opening defence and railways to private capital, and creating dedicated industrial corridors.

Sarma, posting with the hashtag #12YearsOfMakeInIndia, framed the anniversary as 'a testament to the hardwork of Indians and the vision of Adarniya Pradhan Mantri [Respected Prime Minister] Shri Narendra Modi ji.' The tribute from one of the BJP's most prominent regional voices underscores how deeply the initiative has been woven into the party's economic narrative.

From electronics to pharma: the sectors that answered the call

Successive Union Budgets extended the Make in India logic into production-linked incentives across electronics, automobiles, pharmaceuticals and semiconductors — sectors where India has steadily grown its global footprint. The Atmanirbhar Bharat framework, introduced in 2020, deepened that thrust by linking self-reliance at home to competitiveness abroad, effectively merging domestic resilience with export ambition.

Foreign direct investment inflows and manufacturing's share of GDP have been the headline metrics watchers track; the government's next annual data release will put hard numbers behind the anniversary rhetoric. What is already evident is that global supply-chain disruptions over the past half-decade accelerated boardroom decisions to diversify away from single-country dependence — a trend that played directly into India's pitch.

Why Sarma's endorsement carries regional weight

As convenor of the North-East Democratic Alliance (NEDA), Sarma speaks for BJP's footprint across eight north-eastern states — a region that has historically sat outside India's industrial heartland. His public embrace of Make in India's anniversary signals the initiative's messaging has reached beyond the traditional manufacturing belts of Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat into corridors once defined by insurgency and underdevelopment. That geographical spread matters when you are building a national manufacturing story.

The anniversary post arrives as India continues positioning itself as the preferred alternative in a world actively rewiring its supply chains. Whether the next twelve years match the ambition of the first twelve is now the only question worth asking.