India needs to promote clusters of excellence to push manufacturing exports

India needs to promote clusters of excellence

Manufacturing sector contributes around 16 per cent of India’s GDP and is targeted to rise to 25 per cent of the GDP by 2022. It is also an employment intensive sector. However, on the export front, some of our employment generating manufacturing sectors are not doing well of late. For example, the export growth rate of textiles  and apparel, leather and leather products, food processing and gems and jewellery, has been, on an average, marginally negative over the past four to five years. 

While various sectoral and macro-economic issues definitely need to be— or are being — addressed to resolve