In a joint meeting held recently between Parliamentary Committee with the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, discussed the agenda to strengthen manufacturing in India.

The meeting highlighted that the Indian manufacturing sector grew during 2014-15 to 2019-20 was 6.5 per cent.  The sector accounts for nearly 16 per cent of the gross value added (GVA) and employs about 12 per cent of the country’s work force.

In the last six years, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) has taken various measures to strengthen the manufacturing base in India.  The ‘Make in India’ initiative was one of them. It has an objective of facilitating investment, fostering innovation, building best in class manufacturing infrastructure, making it easy to do business and enhancing skill development. 

Currently, under Make in India 2.0, the emphasis now is on 24 sub-sectors which have been chosen on strengths and competitive edge of Indian industries, need for import substitution, potential for exports and increased employability. Further, keeping in view India’s vision of becoming Atmanirbhar and to enhance India’s manufacturing capabilities and exports, an outlay of Rs1.97 lakh crore has been announced in the Union Budget 2021-22 for Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Schemes for 13 key sectors for a period of 5 years starting from next fiscal year.

Some major recent reforms:

The Union Cabinet has also approved constitution of an Empowered Group of Secretaries and also Project Development Cells (PDC) in Ministries/Departments to fast track investments. 

India has also undertaken several steps to improve ‘Ease Of Doing Business’ in the country which is reflected in its improvement in ranking in the World Bank’s EODB Report from 142 in 2014 to 63 in 2020.  These steps would boost economic activity including the manufacturing sector.  The Government is also working to reduce over 6,000 instances of compliance burden on businesses and citizens.

The Government has also developed the Industrial Information System now been known as India Industrial Land bank and a GIS based system which has approximately 4,000 industrial parks geo-tagged using satellite imaginary.  The system has been integrated with industry based GIS System of 13 States.  In addition, industrial park rating system has been undertaken to rate the best performing industrial parks across the country, identifying interventions and serving as a decision support system for investors and policy makers. 

The Investment Clearance Cell (ICC) is being set up to facilitate and support businesses through a one stop digital platform - the National Single Window System.  The platform is planned to be launched with select States by April 15, 2021. To provide safe, reliable, quality goods, minimising health hazards to consumers and promoting exports and import substitution, technical regulations/quality control orders are issued by the Government of India.

Eleven industrial corridors are being developed by the Government to enhance the industrial infrastructure in the country.  These corridors integrated with multi model connectivity infrastructure are expected to boost manufacturing growth.  The Government’s industrial strategy aims to promote balanced industrial development throughout the country.  For stimulating industrial development of hilly States, the Union Government has been supplementing the efforts of State Governments through various policies/schemes/packages of incentives.  Region specific incentive schemes in J&K, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and North East Region are also being implemented. The Government is also working on ‘One District One Product’ initiative with the objective of identifying and promoting the production of unique products in each district in India that can be globally marketed. Government has also launched the Startup India Programme with the intent to catalyse startup culture and build a strong and inclusive eco-system for innovation and entrepreneurship in India. The Intellectual Property Rights regime is being strengthened. Public procurement order has been revised to promote domestic investment and use of ‘Made in India’ products.