The government would face several hurdles in its implementation of the National Manufacturing Policy (NMP), Tata Group chief Rata Tata said on Friday.
"There may be many roadblocks on the way to make that (NMP) actually implementable," the 74-year-old icon industrialist noted.
"But we are on that path. I think it's a tribute that a policy has been established and the government intends to stand by it," he told reporters here after the first meeting of the reconstituted National Manufacturing Competitiveness Council (NMCC).
The NMP was launched earlier this year with much fanfare — after a series of inter-ministerial spates.
To this, Tata said the issues need to be resolved, but did not point out any particular problem area.
"Hindrances in the sense things that need to be resolved. Nothing is as unresolvable," he said. Ever since the policy was given a green signal in October last year, there had been no visible progress on effectively implementing the policy.
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On the contrary, several questions have been raised by various ministries that are involved in successfully making the policy work. This includes the ministries of labour, environment and finance.
The most important and controversial aspect of the NMP is the creation of large-scale manufacturing zones. The first phase of the National Investment and Manufacturing Zone has been planned to be set up along the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor.
Minister of Commerce and Industry and Textiles Anand Sharma said the policy as such has been notified. "There are some other departments' notifications that have to be aligned with the cabinet decision that is happening. I am sure by the end of March (it would happen)," he added. The Centre, along with the states that have created land banks, would move towards its implementation stage, Sharma said. "We are talking to all the states that will in position to form land banks. Seven NMIZs have been notified along the DMIC. Definitely, by August this year there will be some real progress on the ground."
The NMP offers a number of fiscal incentives besides having a special focus on the small and medium industry sectors. The main objective of the policy is to raise share of the manufacturing sector in the gross domestic product to 25 per cent from the present 15-16 per cent in the next decade.