12-14% Growth Rate in Manufacturing Sector is possible

Aroon Kumar

New Delhi: There was a time when it was believed that India cannot do manufacturing. Now we have reached a stage where our National Manufacturing Policy talks about 12-14% growth rate, 100 million jobs and increasing share of manufacturing in GDP to 25% by 2025,” said Mr Ajay Shankar, Secretary, National Manufacturing Competitiveness Council at the Confederation of Indian Industry’s (CII)  flagship event the 10th Manufacturing Summit 2011 in Mumbai, with the theme Indian Manufacturing at a Point of Inflection: Challenges and Responses.”

According to the press release he added, if you look at the past, you see that we had touched 12-14% growth in a few short periods. The challenge is to make it steady and sustainable for 10 years. I think this is very much doable.

He opined that considering that we have firms across the spectrums that have shown themselves to be globally competitive and serious, higher aspirations by the government on this front is obvious. 

Addressing the session, Mr Jamshyd N Godrej, Past President, CII & Chairman - CII Manufacturing Summit 2011, said, “The challenges are tremendous, viz. lowering of growth rate, delaying of important legislations including the one on GST, infrastructure, skill development etc

Prof Pankaj Chandra, Director, Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore observed, Manufacturing does not happen in the Centre but in the states and in individual firms. So while talking about manufacturing policies we will have to deal with states and capabilities of firms

Speaking at the Summit inaugural, Mr. Ajay Piramal, Chairman, Piramal Healthcare India Ltd. shared his concerns saying, “Today to start a manufacturing unit, you have so many impediments right from acquiring land to environmental approvals.  

Mr Pradeep Bhargava, Deputy Chairman, CII - Western Region & Managing Director, Cummins Generator Technologies India, talked about the manufacturing industry standing up for itself.