Twelve years after Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched one of independent India's most ambitious industrial bets, the anniversary of Make in India is drawing renewed salutes from across the Cabinet. Union Culture and Tourism Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat marked the milestone on Friday, 25 September 2026, with a post on X that placed India's talent, technology, hard work, products, and name at the centre of the story.

Posting under the hashtag #12YearsOfMakeInIndia, Shekhawat wrote: 'Bharat ka talent, Bharat ki technology, Bharat ki mehnat, Bharat ke utpad aur Bharat ka hi naam' — 'India's talent, India's technology, India's hard work, India's products and India's very own name.' He credited PM Modi's 'visionary leadership' for drawing the world's attention to the programme.

A flagship born on 25 September 2014

Make in India was launched on 25 September 2014 — exactly twelve years to the day — as a direct pitch to global manufacturers and investors to set up production inside India. The goal was straightforward and audacious in equal measure: raise manufacturing's share of GDP, absorb a young and growing workforce, and break India's historical dependence on imported goods in sectors ranging from electronics to defence.

The programme's lion logo became one of the most recognisable symbols of the Modi government's economic branding. Over the following decade-plus, it was layered with successive policy instruments — most notably Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) schemes — that extended its reach into sectors such as semiconductors, smartphones, pharmaceuticals, and automobiles.

Ministers across portfolios amplify the message

The fact that it is a Culture and Tourism minister — not an industry or commerce counterpart — celebrating this manufacturing milestone is itself a signal of how deeply Make in India has become part of the BJP government's shared political vocabulary. Shekhawat's post, accompanied by a video, frames the initiative not as a narrow industrial policy but as an expression of national identity: talent, technology, and hard work as inherently Indian attributes on a global stage.

That framing has been a consistent thread since 2014. MSMEs, foreign investors, and domestic manufacturers have all been cast as stakeholders in a story the government has deliberately kept broad — expansive enough that any minister in any portfolio can credibly attach themselves to it.

As India's manufacturing data releases and fresh PLI expansions continue to be watched by investors worldwide, the 12-year mark is less a finish line than a staging post — and the government is making sure the world knows it.