Let me not give my answer directly but elaborate on how differently these two are going to impact our economy. If you are impatient and simply want my view on this please jump to the last paragraph.
Make in India is a program that is primarily aimed at fuelling manufacturing sector growth in India. There are multiple objectives to this program which among others include
- An increase in manufacturing sector growth to 12-14% per annum over the medium term.
- An increase in the share of manufacturing in the country’s Gross Domestic Product from 16% to 25% by 2022.
- To create 100 million additional jobs by 2022 in manufacturing sector.
- Creation of appropriate skill sets among rural migrants and the urban poor for inclusive growth.
- An increase in domestic value addition and technological depth in manufacturing.
- Enhancing the global competitiveness of the Indian manufacturing sector.
- Ensuring sustainability of growth, particularly with regard to environment.
However Make in India alone is going to be a disaster. This is because petty production cannot do much to propel Indian Economy. In fact India already has huge petty production happening in its economy which isn’t contributing much to its growth. What we need is growth in skilled manufacturing. The government knows this very well which is why it has also launched a Skill India mission aimed at complementing the Make in India program. Imagine a company like Qualcomm starting a fabrication facility in India but we don’t have the necessary skilled workforce. So Make in India program comes with a caveat, which is Skilling India.
Digital India program on the other hand is aimed at transforming India into a knowledge economy and providing digital service delivery to citizens. It has 3 pillars viz, infrastructure, empowerment and service delivery. We all know what a knowledge economy can do to the level of involvement of the citizens. It has a lot of trickle down benefits. For example consider the broadband highway which is one of the components of the project. If that becomes a reality it would mean that some boy in some remote village would be able to access a lecture by some professor from MIT or Harvard. It means he could start a blog about his life. Maybe he could dream bigger and start an e-commerce company that sells the local products from his village. The moment that village is connected to the internet he is part of the global supply chain. His life is now integrated to the global economy. So Digital India Program has the potential to transform the economy in very many indirect ways (Think of time saved by not going to a government office to obtain a certificate. You might contribute more to the economy in that way)
Now for the quick answer I promised. In the short to medium term Make in India is going to have a larger impact. This is because the investments are direct and results would be faster. However in the longer term Digital India is going to be more effective. This is because the world is moving more and more towards knowledge economy. Manufacturing might very well take a big hit once 3D printing catches on. From Cars (World’s first 3D-printed supercar aimed at shaking up the auto industry) to spanners to the ISS (Nasa emails spanner to space station - BBC News) 3D printing, I believe is the future of manufacturing. This is not to say all manufacturing is going to take a hit, but you get the drift. The future is in design and not in manufacturing, IMHO.
Hope this helps.