The Road to Modi’s Ambitious Make-in-India Goal Runs Through China
- India’s manufacturers dependent on China for raw materials
- High import duties, fiscal incentives helping local producers
Fun Zoo Toys factory in Greater Noida.
Photographer: Anindito Mukherjee/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Fun Zoo Toys is an Indian manufacturing success story. The maker of heart-shaped cushions and “Little Ganesha” dolls started out as a family business in 1979 and has grown to be one of the nation’s major manufacturers of fluffy toys.
Sales doubled after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Made-in-India push saw import duties on toys ramped up from 20% to 70% over three years to 2023. But that’s just half of the story: the production surge to meet those sales wouldn’t have been possible without raw materials like metallic pins, integrated circuits and LEDs imported from China.