On July 10th, Foxconn issued a statement announcing its withdrawal from a $19.5 billion semiconductor joint venture with India's Vedanta Group, equivalent to about 140 billion yuan.

We must be aware that this factory was originally one of Foxconn's largest overseas investment projects, and at the time, they highly praised Foxconn's arrival, calling it "an important step in India's semiconductor manufacturing vision."

So why, after just over a year of joint venture, is Foxconn, which was once held in high regard, exiting? Foxconn's reason is surprisingly "both parties recognized that the project's progress was not fast enough."

When it comes to the work efficiency of Indians, I believe we all have witnessed it, which is truly a case of dragging out the work. What one person can finish must be done by three people, and what can be completed in a day must take three days to finish. We have to admit their work efficiency is something to behold!

Let's look at some data: According to World Bank data, it takes an average of 18 days to register a company in India, which is about twice the average level of OECD countries; if there is a business dispute, Indian courts take an average of 1445 days to resolve the issue, which is nearly four years, three times the average level of OECD countries.

This work efficiency, relative to today's highly competitive environment, is probably only good for drinking water. This is also one of the reasons why many foreign companies are afraid to enter the Indian market.

Of course, Foxconn's announcement to exit the Indian semiconductor joint venture, apart from the Indians' dragging out the work, there is another more serious reason, that is, "Made in India" is turning into "Robbed in India." Its "Made in India" dream is shattering step by step.In fact, after coming to power, the first plan they introduced was to create "Make in India" to replace "Made in China." "Make in India" was their initial ambition, but now it has become their Achilles' heel.

This is due to India's incomplete industrial chain, low worker quality, and slow work efficiency, which have led India, with an impatient attitude, down the wrong path of "it's better to seize than to create": first, attract a large number of foreign companies to set up factories in India with various preferential conditions, and then close the door to "kill the pig," seizing all the capital, factories, and technology for their own use.

Just before India froze Xiaomi's company funds of 4.8 billion, Walmart was fined $1.35 billion, Samsung was fined $212 million, Amazon was fined $172 million, and Google was fined $275 million. It can be said that foreign companies have been fined by the Indian government without exception.

India's two best moves are tax audits and tariffs.

Now, the Indian tax department is conducting large-scale investigations on many companies invested in India. As soon as they find any problems, they will issue huge fines.

According to a person engaged in the mobile phone supply chain in India, large companies in India will be subject to tax audits. Compliance is determined by India, and once audited, no company can escape. Now, both large and small foreign companies have been audited. India's approach has made many foreign companies feel like they have "worked hard for decades, only to return to the starting point in one day."

The other is to increase tariffs. The Office of the United States Trade Representative listed India as the country with the highest tariffs among the "world's major economies" in its "Trade Barriers Report," describing India's trade policy as "non-transparent and unpredictable."

This strategy was originally intended to stimulate multinational companies to invest and set up factories in India. However, when foreign companies set up factories in India, they find that various conditions do not meet their requirements. It is better to import parts from the original factory than to manufacture parts in India. As a result, with the increase in India's import tariffs, the cost of business operations is also rising. This is because, apart from assembly being completed in India, all other processes are completed abroad.

For example, high import tariffs on parts have caused General Motors to lose $588 million in 26 years, and Ford Motor Company to accumulate losses of more than $2 billion in 10 years. Both companies eventually withdrew from the Indian market.Foxconn cannot possibly be blind to these issues. Currently, it is because Foxconn's collaboration with Indian enterprises to build a 28-nanometer chip factory has consistently failed to meet the Indian government's standards, thus preventing it from obtaining subsidies amounting to billions of dollars.

Of course, Foxconn is well aware that not receiving the subsidies is one thing, but if there were to be a post-harvest reckoning, it would not be worth the loss. Therefore, Foxconn's decision to cut its losses and withdraw from the Indian semiconductor joint venture must have been carefully considered.

The current official practices in India have made foreign enterprises wary. According to a report by the Indian Business Standard, from 2014 to 2021, a total of 2,783 multinational companies have successively "fled" India.

I believe Foxconn is by no means the last foreign enterprise to exit the Indian market. So, can India's dream of "Make in India" still be realized? Does the Indian economy have a future?

Let's first examine the changes in India's economic data since the proposal of "Make in India" in 2014. In 2014, the manufacturing sector's share of India's GDP was 16.3%, but by 2021, it had declined to 14.3%.

Data from the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy shows that the unemployment rate in India was 4.9% in 2014, but by April 2023, it had soared to 8.11%.

From these figures, we can see that although there has been some progress in India's economic reforms overall since his rise to power, his initiative of "Make in India" has been quite unsuccessful.

The World Bank's "Doing Business 2020" report states that India is considered one of the "world's most difficult countries to do business in." In this light, the future of India's economy is indeed a cause for concern.

However, Goldman Sachs recently predicted that by 2075, India's GDP is expected to reach $52.5 trillion, surpassing the United States by a trillion dollars, to become the world's second-largest economy after China.Goldman Sachs' rationale is that it is due to India's world-leading demographic dividend, and in such a vast market, capital investment will also become an important driving force for India's economic growth. However, Goldman Sachs also provided some risk warnings, indicating that if the labor force participation rate in India cannot be increased, all efforts would be in vain.

What I would like to say is that, under the circumstances of low population quality and slow work efficiency, India's world-leading population is not a dividend but a form of internal consumption. It does not change the essence of the problem. If they are solely focused on creating "Made in India," wanting foreign companies to generate income for India while also trying to tax every foreign enterprise without exception, in the end, their much-desired "Made in India" could turn into "India's plunder." At that point, it would be quite an achievement if they do not become the poorest country in the world, let alone the second-largest economy.