Twelve years after Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched one of independent India's most ambitious industrial bets, Union Textiles Minister Giriraj Singh marked the anniversary of the Make in India initiative on Friday, 25 September 2026, calling on fellow citizens to celebrate a journey that has reshaped the country's manufacturing ambitions.

In a post on X, Singh wrote — 'भारत के विनिर्माण, नवाचार और आत्मनिर्भरता के महाअभियान' — hailing Make in India as 'the grand campaign of India's manufacturing, innovation and self-reliance,' and congratulating the country on completing 12 years of the initiative. He described India as 'emerging as a global manufacturing hub' under the Prime Minister's leadership, and underscored the country's march toward self-reliance enriched by indigenous strength, employment, and technology.

A milestone born on 25 September 2014

Make in India was launched by Prime Minister Modi on 25 September 2014 with a single, sharp proposition: turn India into a preferred destination for global manufacturing and raise the share of industry in the national economy. The iconic prowling-lion logo — assembled from industrial cogs and gears — became a symbol of the ambition. Successive Union Budgets followed with policy scaffolding: eased foreign direct investment norms, streamlined regulatory approvals, and a concerted push to improve ease of doing business rankings.

The initiative targeted 25 broad sectors, from defence and aerospace to food processing and textiles — the last being squarely within Singh's own ministerial portfolio. For a minister who oversees one of India's largest employment-generating industries, the anniversary carries direct professional resonance.

How Atmanirbhar Bharat extended the original vision

When the Atmanirbhar Bharat campaign arrived in 2020, it did not replace Make in India — it sharpened it. Where the earlier initiative courted global investment and export integration, Atmanirbharta layered on a demand for domestic value addition and reduced import dependence. The logic: India should not merely assemble for the world but design, produce, and own the supply chain. Production Linked Incentive (PLI) schemes rolled out across more than a dozen sectors became the financial instrument that fused both ideas — rewarding firms that manufactured in India and scaled output above defined thresholds.

Manufacturers, MSMEs, and millions of employment seekers are the direct stakeholders in this twelve-year arc. The PLI framework in textiles alone targeted fresh investment and the creation of a significant number of new jobs in apparel and man-made fibre segments — a pipeline that Singh has championed through his tenure.

Why the 12th anniversary lands differently

Global supply-chain recalibration — accelerated by geopolitical realignments and a post-pandemic hunt for alternatives to concentrated manufacturing nodes — has given India a structural opening it did not have in 2014. The question that will define the next chapter is whether India converts that opening into durable industrial capacity. Upcoming Union Budget announcements and industry summits are the next real stress-tests for the initiative's momentum.

Giriraj Singh's message, brief as it is, signals that the BJP's political identity remains tightly woven into the Make in India narrative heading into its second decade — and that the government intends to keep the anniversary front of mind with voters and investors alike.

Twelve years in, the cogs on the lion are still turning. Whether they turn fast enough to meet the ambition is the story of the next twelve.