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The draft “National Strategy for Manufacturing” prepared by the National Manufacturing Competitiveness Council (NMCC) was recently discussed here in detail at the 3rd meeting of the Council, chaired by Dr. V.K. Krishnamurthy, Chairman, NMCC, on 12th August, 2005 and attended by Shri V. Govindarajan, Member Secretary, along with other members. The contribution of the Indian manufacturing sector in the GDP is only about 17%, much lower compared to figure of 25% to 35% in some of the East Asian economies. Manufacturing has been recognised as the main engine for growth of the economy and employment and competitiveness is central to robust growth of the manufacturing sector. This sector is crucial for providing jobs directly or indirectly for the large work force entering the job market every year, particularly from the rural areas.
The strategy paper, therefore, attempts to identify the areas of policy and outlines the strategy directions that need to be pursued in order to realise higher levels of growth and employment. The various challenges facing Indian manufacturing are analysed in the strategy paper, which focusses on creating conditions for growth, investment & employment; driving cost competitiveness and domestic demand; enhancing the role of Small & Medium Enterprises; and the importance of Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) and Information Technology (IT) in manufacturing sector.
The draft strategy paper has suggested the way forward by giving specific recommendations covering 13 areas for increasing the share of manufacturing in the GDP and for securing a larger share of the global market viz. (i) Enhancement of government focus on manufacturing imperative and competitiveness; (ii) Creating conditions for the growth of the manufacturing sector; (iii) Lowering cost of manufacture; (iv) Investing in innovations; (v) Strengthening education and training; (vi) Adoption of global best practices in manufacturing; (vii) Right market framework, competition and regulations; (viii) Promotion of small and medium industries; (ix) Enabling public sector manufacturing industries to meet competitive market conditions; (x) Infrastructure development (xi) Firm level competitiveness; (xii) Role of State Governments; (xiii)Creating a monitoring mechanism & measuring performance.
It was also decided that after obtaining inputs from the Members the draft strategy paper will be finalised and put up on the web site shortly for wider dissemination and comments from the larger cross sectionofpublicandindustry.
Dr. Krishnamurthy recalled the first meeting taken by the Prime Minister in January 2005 and highlighted the significant progress made in different areas of work of the NMCC. He mentioned that 11 sub-sectors were covered for detailed intervention with the different stakeholders and appropriate followed up activities were underway. The NMCC would be having subs-sectoral group meetings to cover another 16 sectors relating to manufacturing and also some cross cutting generic issues in the near future. The NMCC would also ensure continuous dialogue with the State Governments and work towards the implementation of the various recommendations through the various concerned Ministries. He specifically mentioned the positive development relating to the Small-scale industry in the annual monitoring and credit policy from RBI as well as the recent announcement made by the Finance Minister which would go a long way in benefiting the small and medium industry segment. Referring to the problems being faced in the context of free trade agreements, he said these were getting due attention by the newly set up Trade and Economic Relations Committee (TERC) headed by the Prime Minister. NMCC is coordinating with about 25 ministries about the various concerns of the manufacturing sectors in order to provide the wayforward,hesaid.
Among others who attended the meeting were Shri Anwarul Hoda, Member-Industry, Planning Commission; and captains of the industry as well as academicians who are members, namely, Shri Y.C. Deveshwar; Shri Jamshyd N. Godrej; Shri Baba N Kalyani; Shri Suresh Neotia; Shri Mukul Kasliwal; Ms. Uma Reddy; Shri Onkar S. Kanwar; President, FICCI; Shri M.K. Sanghi; President, ASSOCHAM; Dr. Isher Judge Ahluwalia; Prof. Bibek Debroy; Prof. Shekhar Chaudhuri; Prof. M.S Ananth and Secretaries to the Government, namely, Dr. Ajay Dua, Department of Industrial policy & Promotion; Shri Priyadarshi Thakur, Ministry of Heavy Industry & Public Enterprises and Shri Anupam Dasgupta, Ministry of Small Scale Industry and Agro & Rural Industry.
SB/MRS
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