Union minister for commerce Anand Sharma today said the government has prepared a draft policy document on manufacturing sector. The draft will be discussed in the high-level committee on manufacturing to be chaired by the Prime Minister on June 9, 2011.
“The objective of this policy will be to identify key instrumentalities by which we can augment the share of manufacturing in our GDP from 15 per cent to 25 per cent by 2025. This will entail a growth in manufacturing at the rate of 12-14 per cent per annum which will be able to sustain the momentum of economic growth in the range of 9 per cent and enable the creation of 100 million jobs by 2025,” he said.
He was speaking after laying the foundation stone of Nano Manufacturing Technology Centre (NMTC) and Academy of Excellence for Advanced Manufacturing Technology (AEAMT) at the Central Manufacturing Technology Institute (CMTI) here.
Sharma said the key policy thrust of his ministry has been to provide a greater push to the growth of manufacturing sector.
The NMTC is being established at a cost of Rs 120 crore. He also dedicated two advanced technology systems at the NMTC Laboratory - the Direct Metal Deposition (DMD) system, set up at Rs 6 crore and the first of its kind in the country and the Femto Laser Machining Centre procured at a cost of Rs 3.8 crore. This equipment would be used for industry focused R & D and Technology development.
AEAMT is being established at a cost of Rs 20 crore. This is a focused HR initiative with the objective of generating qualified human resource in advanced manufacturing technologies to meet the requirement of ‘Job Ready Engineers’ for the sector.
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Both NMTC and AEAMT are the flagship projects of the Government of India and funded under the XIth Plan by the Department of Industrial Policy & promotion (DIPP), Ministry of Commerce and Industry. The minister also inaugurated the Advanced Machine Tool Testing Facility (AMTTF) established at CMTI at a cost of Rs 10 crore. This is a Public-Private-Partnership initiative between the DIPP, CMTI and the Indian Machine Tool Manufacturers’ Association (IMTMA) with equity participation from the stakeholders.
Later in the evening, Sharma participated in the industry round table with CEOs and heard the prospects, opportunities and challenges of different industry segments and to identify policy bottlenecks which need to be fine-tuned for giving industrial growth a greater momentum.
In his comments, he said, “South India has been a major driver of growth for India in the last decade, contributing to over 22 per cent of India’s GDP and 28 per cent of its employment. The southern region’s GDP has the potential to reach $700 billion by 2016, and approximately $1,200 billion by 2020.”
Together, the southern states represent a GDP of $300 billion which is behind the top 30 economies of the world of which manufacturing sectors like textile, automotive and auto components, and advanced industries includes construction equipment, aerospace and defense, contributes $30 billion, $28 billion and $6 billion, respectively. Karnataka has 70 per cent share in the aerospace and defence sectors. Andhra Pradesh accounts for 17 per cent of India’s pharmaceutical sector. Tamil Nadu controls 25 per cent of the automotives and auto components sector. It also has a 22 per cent share of India’s textile sector, sharma noted.