Investor Trust and Perception Gaps in the Make in India Initiative: A Behavioural–Neuromarketing Analysis Using the PACADI Decision Framework

The "Make in India" initiative has successfully positioned India as a premier destination for global capital, achieving a cumulative FDI inflow of $1 trillion since 2000, with nearly 69% of that total arriving within the last decade. However, the manufacturing sector’s share of the national GDP has remained stagnant between 13% and 17%, far below the targeted 25%. This study utilizes an exploratory–explanatory research design based on secondary data from 2014 to 2025 to investigate this paradox. Grounded in a behavioural-neuromarketing framework, the analysis employs the PACADI model to decode the investor journey. The research reveals that while "Perception," "Attention," and "Desire" are effectively stimulated through aggressive branding and policy incentives like the Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme, "Cognition" and "Affect" are frequently compromised by structural barriers, including judicial backlogs, regulatory inconsistencies, and a strategic "Power Gap." The findings suggest that investor trust is a fragile construct maintained by the orbitofrontal cortex’s valuation of stability and the prefrontal cortex’s strategic risk assessment. The paper proposes that future industrial policy communication should move beyond high-level promotion to address the granular cognitive needs of investors, focusing on lowering the "Error-Detection" triggers in the anterior cingulate cortex to bridge the implementation gap.