State governments must chart individual plans to boost their manufacturing sector so as to help make its contribution 25 per cent of the country’s overall gross domestic product (GDP) by 2025, the Planning Commission said on Wednesday.
“The way forward is not the central government directing states on the implementation of policies. The states have to themselves develop their own manufacturing plans,” Arun Maira, a member with the high-powered body, said here at an event organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry.
The Planning Commission had, during its recent interactions with states, sensed that their governments did not like receiving directions from the Centre on implementation of various decisions. The states had sought for a mechanism similar to what the central government had been planning in its bid to support effective implementation of the manufacturing policy.
Today, Maira, while explaining the efforts taken by the Commission and its 26 sectoral committees in shaping up the manufacturing policy, said the way forward includes taking the policy to the state level — and aligning sectoral schemes with the overall strategy. It also wants to communicate the plans to a broader audience, he noted, while speaking in the third edition of the Tamil Nadu Manufacturing Summit that focused on sustaining manufacturing excellence.
The concept of “agencification” — where the government sets up various agencies being managed by the stakeholders — would be an option to ensure proper implementation of policy measures, Maira said.
The country expects an increase in the rate of job creation in the manufacturing industry, as it estimates a demand for 100 million additional jobs by 2025. For this, he said, the country had to increase the growth of the manufacturing sector growth to around two-four per cent more than the growth in the GDP. This would make it the engine for a growth in the economy and increase its share in the overall GDP to 25 per cent by 2025, he added.
