BJP promises to go big on startups, EVs, chips

Unveils poll manifesto; promises easing of laws, more startup funds

Bengaluru: The BJP on Sunday released its manifesto for the Lok Sabha polls, with the economic part of it reading like a ‘mini budget’ of sorts.

The party promised that if the Modi government is elected back to power, it will work to make India a global manufacturing hub for electric vehicles, semiconductors, smart phones, toy exports and equipment for railways, aviation and shipbuilding.

The manifesto stated that the government will expand the existing Startup India Seed Fund and the Startup Credit Guarantee Scheme, help in incubating more startups and include more of them in government procurement, across sectors.

“We guarantee that Bharat will be the 3rd largest economic power. We have demonstrated low inflation, high growth and fiscal prudence in the past decade. We will continue on this path and stay committed to expand our economic prowess,” the manifesto stated.

The economic promises in the BJP’s manifesto are more sector-specific than those in the Congress’ manifesto, which was released earlier this month. The Congress focused more on employment-specific measures as it accused the BJP of failing on creating jobs.

The Congress has promised an employment-linked incentive scheme and an urban employment guarantee programme.

In its manifesto, the BJP felt that its effort to create jobs through production-linked incentive scheme (PLI), infrastructure investment and focus on services like tech and tourism has generated employment, and will continue to do so.

It said that the government will make India a hub for high-value services by establishing more Global Capability Centres (GCCs), Global Tech Centres (GTCs) and Global Engineering Centres (GECs).

“We will reduce compliances for small traders and MSMEs to enhance their ease of living and ease of doing business. We will work with state governments and encourage them to simplify state legislations,” it said, on providing ease of doing business for micro, small and medium enterprises. It also said that Goods and Service Tax will be simplified further.

The manifesto also promised to make India a ‘trusted Global Manufacturing Hub’ through a series of schemes, including simplification of regulatory processes and laws, infrastructure investment and availability of capital. 

“Based on the principles of PM-Gatishakti, the government shall develop industrial cities in different industrial corridors for balanced regional development. This shall promote industrialisation of backward regions of the country,” the manifesto stated.

The party said the government will focus on technology and sustainability transition happening in steel, cement, metals, and engineering goods industries and will support these industries to adopt greener manufacturing processes.

“We will deepen our component ecosystem and take semiconductor design and manufacturing to a new level to become one of the global majors in chip manufacturing. We will support the growth of the automobile industry and its transition to EV manufacturing,” it stated.