India can create more jobs if 'Make in India' is tweaked to 'Export from India': John Rice, GE

NEW DELHI: US giant General Electric is worried that protectionism and rising populist rhetoric the world over will harm the global economy and slash jobs even in the US but is optimistic about India, where it will hire 1,000 more software engineers to support international operations including covergence of industrial and digital domains, Vice-Chairman John Rice said.

Rice said India can create many more jobs if it tweaks the ‘Make in India’ campaign to encourage investors to export from the facilities they build. GE will make its Indian locomotive factory a hub for international supplies, while other global firms would also step up investment, if given good export credit incentives.
“If there was a comprehensive export credit facility here in India, we and other investors would certainly look at doing more here,” he said.

Rice, who heads GE’s global operations since 2010, said Indian software engineers would also participate in digital-industrial convergence, a key focus area that’s the mirror image of Google’s efforts with, for instance, driver-less cars.

GE operates in 180 countries and sells most of its products in markets across the borders from its manufacturing locations, which increases its concerns about growing protectionism, the company’s vice-chairman said.

Britain’s vote to exit from the European Union and provocative statements against immigrants and religious groups from Donald Trump in the run-up to the US elections have raised concerns among the global investment community.

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“We do see a challenge. We are concerned about it,” he told ET in an interview. “We believe in the importance of trade agreements. We think a level-playing field benefits everyone.”

Business thrives in a world without barriers, he suggested. “If you restrict trade you will be doing things that create risks for jobs in the US associated with some of our businesses including the aviation business,” Rice said. “But in the end, your point is valid.

There’s a populist and protectionist rhetoric. We can’t deny it. We have to understand it and then figure out how we operate GE in a way that still allows us to deliver for shareholders, customers and countries in which we operate.”

He said the impact of Brexit would be played out over years, perhaps decades, although some aspects like the weaker pound was helping manufacturing in Britain.

The company had no plans to redeploy its workforce in Britain. “We tend to not make decisions in the middle of turbulence like this,” he said. “I think implications have to play out. We are in no way thinking about significant movements one way or the other in connection with Brexit. We will take a long-term view.”

Rice said India was clearly a better place to do business today than in the past. “I do think India’s a more attractive place. I think our locomotive investment is a good example of that. We are excited by that opportunity; pleased that we were successful and want to move forward as quickly as possible. So yes, if you compare pre and post, I will say India is definitely more attractive. Policies and strategies like Make in India are important and significant and can help create the jobs that need to be created here.”

He said Make in India was a policy, not merely a slogan, but more could be done to accelerate job creation. “For example there could be a subtext to Make in India, around export from India,” he said. “The point being that our investment to assemble locomotives is phase one. Phase two should be exporting from this facility to support our requirements in other countries.”