Gujarat, Maharashtra, MP, and Goa to hatch up to 25 new MNCs under CII Programme: Vir S Advani
New Delhi, August 13
Vir S Advani, Chairman, CII Western Region & Chairman and Managing Director, Blue Star Ltd, on Thursday said that India will likely have up to 25 new multinational companies over the next 2-3 years under the CII Western Region's SME-to-MNC programme.
Speaking with ANI, Vir S Advani said the programme will focus on strengthening their capabilities, improving competitiveness, increasing investment in R&D and developing leadership talent, enabling the companies to scale up and eventually become exporters.
"If we are successful, we are hopeful that from western region we can create 20 to 25 such companies over the next 2-3 years, it does not sound like a lot but once we pilot it with these companies, I think then it will become an automatic momentum which will allow us to then create 100s of multinational companies from India, that is CII western region's hope," Vir S Advani told ANI.
The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has rolled out a targeted SME-to-MNC programme across Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, and Goa over 12 to 48 months.
Beyond nurturing upcoming multinational giants, the initiative serves a crucial macroeconomic objective: mitigating India's balance of payments pressures. Pointing to rising import bills driven by energy demands and component imports amid ongoing geopolitical conflicts, Advani emphasised that scaling regional exports remains a central pillar of CII's policy proposals and industry collaboration.
"CII is very focused on exports because we understand the government is clear that we need to fix this balance of payment problem that we have, the rupee is depreciating rapidly because imports are rising, one is of course oil imports are rising because of the war, but also we have a lot of import of components, so to offset that CII's proposal to the government is to push exports so that we balance the imports that we are doing," he said.
Adding to this, Advani said CII is working with its 720 members in Gujarat to help companies expand their export footprint.
— ANI
Reader Comments
Good initiative but 25 companies in 2-3 years seems very modest. China creates hundreds of MNCs every year. We need to think bigger and move faster. Also, the rupee depreciation concern is real - with oil prices soaring due to geopolitical tensions, we must boost exports aggressively. The government should provide more incentives for R&D.
As someone from Gujarat, I can see the potential in our manufacturing clusters. The CII working with 720 members is promising. But we need to ensure these companies don't just become exporters of raw materials - we need value-added products. The balance of payments issue is serious; every rupee saved on imports and earned through exports counts. Let's hope this programme delivers tangible results.
Interesting to see India's push to create MNCs. As someone who works with Indian suppliers, I see huge potential in Gujarat's engineering and chemical sectors. The 12-48 month timeline seems realistic for capability building. The focus on balancing imports through exports is smart economics. Would love to see more partnerships with overseas firms to accelerate the learning curve.
Respectfully, I think the government and CII should also address the ground-level challenges - our SMEs struggle with outdated technology, bureaucratic red tape, and limited access to global markets. Just R&D and leadership training may not be enough. We need infrastructure upgrades and faster clearances. Also, 25 MNCs is too few when you consider the size of our economy.
Great to see CII taking a proactive role! The emphasis on exports to fix the balance of payments problem is spot-on. We import too much — oil, electronics, even basic chemicals. If we can create even 100 MNCs in the
We welcome thoughtful discussions from our readers. Please keep comments respectful and on-topic.