Govt aims to raise manufacturing share to 25% of GDP

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Wednesday said the Central government was determined to meet the “uphill national challenge” of increasing the contribution of manufacturing in gross domestic product (GDP) from 15 to 25 per cent.

“One of our national challenges is increasing the 15-odd per cent that manufacturing contributes to the GDP to 25 per cent,” he said. “But it is an uphill task. Therefore, that leaves us essentially with the services sector whose growth is a low-hanging fruit in India.”

The finance minister said the services sector was an area in which there was a huge space to grow. “India has the potential to grow. Goods manufactured and services provided in India should be cost effective and should be able to compete globally.” He said many of the issues plaguing the growth of manufacturing in India would be addressed very soon through the Make in India campaign.

Recalling the success of the information technology industry in India, Jaitley said several US presidents had tried to impose restrictive regimes on outsourced services to save jobs in their country. “This means you are forcing your citizens to buy costlier services from their country when these are available at the same time at a fraction of the cost, outside.”