Why a lion as a symbol in GoI campaign—Make in India? PM Modi explains at Hannover Fair

WHEN Make in India campaign, currently the most talked about government campaigns, was launched last year to woo companies to manufacturing, various ideas reportedly cropped up before creating the campaign symbol. Should it be a tiger or a lion? And finally, when a walking lion was chosen to depict the Make in India campaign, the gossip was that it was invariably from Gujarat's Gir forest, the only habitat of lions in India. For the record, Narendra Modi was the chief minister of Gujarat for about 13 years before becoming the Indian prime minister. On Monday, none of than PM himself explained at Germany’s Hannover Messe, one of the biggest industrial fairs in the globe, why his government chose a lion to depict the Make in India campaign. He said…
India’s journey to emerge as a global manufacturing hub is unstoppable, very similar to that of a walking lion. He said, the symbol of lion for Make in India was chosen “very carefully”.
“We know that our biggest need today is to create jobs for our 65% population which is young. Hence, Make in India is the need. Hence the lion, because a lion cannot be stopped. We are confident that our journey to make India a global manufacturing hub cannot be stopped that too by our own rules and regulations. We must and we will make corrections wherever it is required,” he said, reiterating that the government attaches importance on ease of doing business in India.
When the symbol was zeroed in, the men behind the exercise said the idea was borrowed from India’s emblem which is an adaptation of the Lion Capital of Ashoka at Sarnath, preserved in the Varanasi’s Sarnath museum in India. The Lion Capital includes four Asiatic lions standing back to back, symbolizing power, courage, pride, and confidence.
Though various government departments use symbols to depict their schemes, the Make in India symbol has stood apart. The department of industrial policy and promotion (DIPP) is the nodal agency handling the campaign. DIPP secretary Amitabh Kant is also credited with driving some of earlier successful government campaigns such as !ncredible India, God’s Own Country and Atithi Devo Bhava.