'India Must Not Miss Another Samsung Moment' Says Nilesh Shah, Calls for Competitive Manufacturing Policies

In a powerful commentary on India’s missed opportunities in the global manufacturing race, Nilesh Shah, Managing Director of Kotak Mahindra Asset Management Company, urged policymakers to ensure the country does not repeat the same mistakes. Referring to Samsung's journey, Shah explained how India, despite being the tech giant’s first choice in the mid-1990s, lost the manufacturing edge to Vietnam due to a lack of consistent incentives and infrastructure support.  

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 “India Must Not Miss Another Samsung Moment,” Says Nilesh Shah

“Samsung came to India long before they went to Vietnam. They’re India’s largest consumer durable company and operate the world’s largest single-location mobile handset plant in Noida. Yet, their turnover in Vietnam is ₹6 lakh crore—six times higher than in India,” Shah pointed out. “Vietnam is one-twelfth India’s size. Imagine if we had kept them here by making manufacturing more competitive. Where would India be today?”

Samsung entered India in 1995 during the economic liberalisation phase, initially capitalising on the growing consumer base. However, the company’s 2008 shift to Vietnam—where they set up their first mobile phone factory—saw the creation of a massive global export hub, all made possible by investor-friendly reforms and swift clearances by the Vietnamese government.

Shah, a gold-medalist Chartered Accountant and a merit-ranked Cost Accountant, with over two and a half decades in investment management across ICICI, Axis Bank, and Franklin Templeton, used this example to highlight what India can learn moving forward. 

Weak Foreign Investment Policy Holding Back Manufacturing Ambitions

Shah’s remarks also hint at deeper structural issues within India’s foreign investment ecosystem. While India has the scale and demand, it often loses large investments due to regulatory uncertainty, high import duties, slow infrastructure development, and inconsistent state-level policies. Experts say that while Vietnam offered seamless ease of doing business, faster clearances, and tax holidays, India’s red tape discouraged similar scaling.

PM Modi’s Manufacturing Push and the Way Forward

Under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India has made significant progress in positioning itself as a manufacturing hub through initiatives like Make in India, Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Schemes, and improvements in Ease of Doing Business rankings. India is now among the top destinations for FDI and has seen consistent growth in electronics and smartphone production.

However, Nilesh Shah’s observations act as a reminder that global corporations evaluate countries based not just on market size but on execution speed, cost competitiveness, and policy stability.