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The National Manufacturing Competitiveness Council (NMCC) will prepare a long-term strategy to promote rapid growth of the manufacturing sector in India, which has been stagnant for the past decade or so. This is among the major decisions taken by the NMCC at its first meeting which was inaugurated here yesterday by Shri Kamal Nath, Union Minister of Commerce & Industry and chaired by Dr. V. Krishnamurthy. Besides the long-term strategy, the Council also decided to take up issues that required to be addressed immediately relating to sectors like textiles in the wake of the phase-out of the textile quotas under the multi-fibre arrangement (MFA) as well leather and other sectors which have tremendous potential. The Council’s message for the forthcoming Budget was: “Reward innovation and R&D” as a spur to manufacturing sector growth.
The share of manufacturing sector accounts for only 17% in our GDP which is very low compared to China, Malaysia and Thailand where manufacturing contributes to 1/3rd or more in their GDP. The growth of manufacturing sector at an average of 6.3% during 1991 to 2003 is much below India’s potential. Manufacturing needs to grow at 12% annually or more for GDP to grow at 8% and provide jobs to the masses. Though the National Common Minimum Programme targets 8% plus GDP growth over a decade, the Indian manufacturing industry is capable of taking Indian GDP growth to double digits, as was pointed out by Shri Kamal Nath.
Among the members who attended the first meeting of NMCC were S/Shri Ratan Tata, Y.C. Deveshwar, Jamshed Godrej, Venu Srinivasan, Habil Khorakiwala of Wokhardt Limited, Dr. Surinder Kapur of Sona Steerings, Mukul Kasliwal of S Kumars, Ms. Uma Reddy, woman entrepreneur; economists Dr. Bibek Debroy and Dr. Isher Judge Ahluwalia, eminent educationists Dr. M. S. Anant of IIT Chennai and Prof. Sekhar Choudhry of IIM Kolkata, besides representatives of industry associations, FICCI, CII and ASSOCHAM along with Shri Govindarajan, Member Secretary of the Council.
Economic liberalisation has provided tremendous opportunities for Indian manufacturers to make products for domestic and global markets, cost advantages of manufacturing in India is evident to the global community, who have started using the Indian manufacturing base in sectors like auto-components, R&D, drugs & pharmaceuticals etc. Shri Kamal Nath said that NMCC would be an hands-on Council which would provide continuous policy inputs to help the Indian manufacturing sector to reach its potential.
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