The Prime Minister today launched the Make in India initiative whose objective is to make India a manufacturing hub by attracting foreign companies to set up their manufacturing units.

Launching the campaign at a function in New Delhi today, Mr Narendra Modi said, the government has been able to change circumstances that forced businessmen to leave India. He said the biggest factor to attract investment is to create an atmosphere of trust.

Mr Modi said, Make in India campaign will help in generating huge employment opportunities besides boosting trade and economic growth. The Prime Minister said, if the poor get jobs, the purchasing power of their families will increase. Mr Modi said, there is a need to create a development and growth oriented environment as Industry does not come when there are too many incentive schemes.

He said, government will increase manufacturing and at the same time ensure that the benefits reach the youth of the country. The Prime Minister said FDI is an opportunity in India for people abroad and assured industrialists that they will not lose their money in the country. Mr Modi said his definition of FDI for the people of India is First Develop India.

Hundreds of global and domestic CEOs including Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani and Wipro CEO Azim Premji attended the function.

Make in India will act as a first reference point for guiding foreign investors on all aspects of regulatory and policy issues and assist them in obtaining regulatory clearances.

In his Independence Day speech, Mr Modi had appealed to people the world over to come and manufacture in India and sell in any country of the world. Mr Modi had asserted that India has the skill, talent, discipline and determination.

Earlier, speaking on the occasion, Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said government wants to make India a global destination for manufacturing and it has a huge potential to be so.

Speaking at a function to launch Make India Campaign in New Delhi today, she said government is determined to push the share of manufacturing in GDP to 25 per cent from the present 15 per cent. She said government has identified 25 sectors in which India can become a global leader.

Ms Sitharaman said a series of measures are being taken to ease doing business. She said the government is fully committed to de-licensing, deregulating and taking India to high growth trajectory. She said labour laws are also being amended.