The Not-so-special economic zones in the era of make in India

The Make in India initiative launched by the Government has generated a lot of global interest since its launch in 2014. Indian economy is also looking forward to reap the benefits of the campaign. At the same time another issue which needs attention is the plight of Special Economic Zones in India which have been facing challenges in achieving the objectives for which their idea was implemented. This paper throws light on the condition of the SEZs and also tries to analyse what impact Make in India has generated on them.

The parameters of employment generated, exports, investment and number of approved, notified and operational SEZs have been taken into account to assess the impact of Make in India on the SEZs.

The paper highlights the reasons behind the under performance of the SEZs and also offers some viable suggestions to make them engines of balanced domestic growth and export promotion at global level.