Yogesh Mahansaria, chief executive of Mumbai-headquartered Alliance Tire, would make a good frontman for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “Make in India” campaign. And it certainly needs one.

When Mr Modi launched the initiative some months ago, he left many people unclear about what it actually meant. To some, it is simply an amorphous rallying cry, rather than an attempt to achieve real change on the ground. To others, it is a variation on the Gandhian theme of Swadeshi — at the time, a sort of shorthand for “do not buy Manchester cloth, buy Indian instead” (never mind that Indian fabric was far more expensive back then).

To one Japanese official based in Delhi, the campaign is more specifically about persuading Indians not to buy Chinese imports of everything from smartphones to steel.