The Indian Government is fighting tooth and nail on Twitter, defending any plagiarism charges against the ‘Make in India’ symbol that depicts industrial lion with wheels.The
The issue started trending on the micro-blogging site, Twitter, and people tweeted that “Even the Make in India lion was not Make in India?”
DIPP Secretary Amitabh Kant countered allegations of plagiarism.
"Since time immemorial Lion has been the official emblem of India. Stands for courage, tenacity & wisdom - all Indian values," Kant tweeted.
As per the report, the logo on the sponsored campaign of the Swiss bank was designed by Swiss designer Nadine Geissbulher, and was launched on July 4. India's campaign started in September 2014.
The 'Make in India' campaign’s lion was designed by the Indian subsidiary of the US agency Wieden+Kennedy. V Sunil, Executive Creative Director of Wieden+Kennedy, defended any speculation of plagiarism.
"For starters, the Ashoka is one of the strongest symbols of India, it's a natural and obvious connection - the four lions and the chakra - wheel of progress. When we decided to use the lion, that's what we were thinking," Sunil told Economic Times.
Meanwhile, Kant said the industrial wheels design is just one of 30 lions, each represents a different sector - auto parts, textiles, etc. “This is amusing. There's absolutely no reason for a country like ours to copy some random lion off a train,” he tweeted.
Kant also had the same explanation for how the design came about. "The logo is inspired by India's strongest symbol ever- TheAshoka emblem+ a bit of RBI," Kant said in another tweet.
"We will take this head on. These allegations are being made by a competing agency with malicious intentions. When we had announced the campaign, we made it clear that the wheels were from the Ashoka Chakra. This is defamatory," a government official told the financial daily.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the campaign in a bid to turn India into a manufacturing hub.
(Image: Indiatimes)