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Union Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal (File Photo: PTI)
Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal on Friday said manufacturing is going to determine the direction and path of India’s growth trajectory, while adding that India can contribute much more through manufacturing.
Addressing the FICCI CEO Roundtable ‘Viksit Bharat – India Manufacturing Leadership’ Forum, he added that manufacturing has been at the forefront of India’s development journey, growing roughly at the same level as India’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth of about 7-8 per cent, and it will be key to achieving the vision of Viksit Bharat by 2047.
“It is good that we are able to maintain this level, but at another level, for a country with 1.4 billion Indians… I think India can clearly and certainly contribute much more through manufacturing not only to Atmanirbharta and self-sufficiency… but also by providing jobs, employment opportunities and entrepreneurial possibilities,” the minister remarked.
The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved 12 industrial smart cities spanning across 10 states and six major industrial corridors worth Rs 28,602 crore, alleviating the problem of lack of physical and social infrastructure around industrial units, and giving a fillip to manufacturing in India.
Goyal argued some of the issues faced by companies in India revolve around land and lack of infrastructure, which can be resolved via these industrial smart cities projects by building ‘plug-and-play’ and ‘walk-to-work’ infrastructure around the industries.
The minister said four industrial parks are currently being implemented, which include Dholera (Gujarat), Vikram-Udyogpuri (Madhya Pradesh), Shendra-Bidkin (Maharashtra), and Greater Noida (Uttar Pradesh), and the committed investment for these four projects is worth Rs 1.72 lakh crore by selling 3,500 acres of developed land in these four parks.
“The idea is to have balanced regional development across the country. The potential estimates are about a million jobs and $20 billion of investment… which seems very conservative when you look at the four industrial parks that are currently being implemented,” he noted.
Further, Goyal opined that investment numbers regarding the newly announced 12 industrial cities will result in much greater opportunities for manufacturing. He urged the industrialists present at the forum to identify and plan their investment in the industrial parks.
“We have also been very focused on attracting global value chains (GVCs) and helping people set up global capability centres (GCCs). Half of the companies around the world have some or the other GCC in India. On our part, we are working on ease of doing business… but we need ideas from our industry friends,” he elaborated.
Goyal also focused on the importance of industry-government partnership in the successful implementation of various government schemes pertaining to manufacturing, skilling, and industry, urging the manufacturers to engage with the government. “I do believe that a lot has happened, but a lot can happen in the days ahead,” he said.
First Published: Aug 30 2024 | 5:50 PM IST
