The products made by companies can be of 3 types: Zero-tech items, Intermediate-tech items, and Hi-tech items. In 1970s, Muraarji Desai’s government listed out 840 items as zero-tech items. Zero-tech items means, they do not need complicated technology to produce and can be made in small-scale industries in every town. For example, making tooth paste, tooth powder, soaps, detergents, shampoos, face creams, pen, pencil, tomato sauce, chips, salt, packing chilly powder, atta, purified water, carbonated water (soda, pepsi, coca-cola), making liquids with fruit flavors (fruity, slice)… like this 840 items are zero-tech items in India. In this document, I’m mainly concentrating on zero-tech items and the industries, which produce and/or market zero-tech items.
Making zero-tech items is not a difficult job and can be done in small-scale industries in every town with sufficient quality maintenance. The public consumes them in large quantities, as they are FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods). Muraarji Desai’s government reserved these zero-tech items for Indian small-scale industries and hence no foreign multinational company should produce and/or market these items in India. Their intention was to let these be produced by Indian small-scale industries and decentralize this income among thousands of small industries instead of a few large industries of foreign nationals. Industry minister, George Fernandes canceled the licence of coca-cola company in India. They also sent IBM (International Business Machines) and ICL (International Computers Ltd.) out of India. They were about to send Hindustan Lever out, but the government changed and next rulers didn’t continue this. Hindustan Lever Ltd is Holland Company with its original name, UniLever. It’s the company, which produces and markets maximum zero-tech products in India. Its turnover in 2002-03 in India is “11 thousand 800 crore” rupees. This company’s growth rate has decreased in 2001, might be because of few people started rejecting foreign company products and going for Indian alternatives. ***
Even with the new governments after Muraarji Desai’s, the rate of new multinationals getting into zero-tech segment in India was low. In 1991, finance minister Man Mohan Singh (P.V. Narasimha Rao’s government), started a new mantra in the name of reforms, Globalization and Liberalization. Under this name, 80-90% of the foreign multinationals, which entered India, started making zero-tech items. Today 75% of the Indian market is filled with foreign branded items. Because of this, every year thousands of crores of rupees go out of India in the form of profit and to normalize this deficit, our government takes loan from outside. These days it has started to take loan to pay the yearly interest! This has made more than 5 lakh small-scale industries to shutdown and made more than 8 crore people unemployed.
While inviting foreign multinational companies, our leaders give some reasons:Foreign multinationals invest “initial capital” in the country. They bring “higher technology” into the country. They make “quality products”. They create “employment”. They introduce “competition” in the market. They increase “export”.
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