India is now one of the top 10 industrial nations of the world and has also withstood the financial recession with a growing trend of productivity in its manufacturing industries, according to a report by the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (Unido).
It is, however, far below China, which has secured the second position after the US, says the report, titled ‘International Yearbook of Industrial Statistics - 2011’, released on Tuesday.
During the global economic downturn, the share of industrialised nations such as the US, Japan, Germany and the UK fell sharply, while that of developing countries such as China, India and Brazil has increased, said the report.
“In the last decade, the share of such major industrialised countries as the US, Japan and Germany in world manufacturing value addition has fallen. China is a main winner, now ranking second behind the US. Ranks are not stable, due to the close competition of emerging economies. In the coming years, Russia, Mexico and Spain might increase their share and occupy a higher position,” the report stated.
The India section, titled ‘Performance of Manufacturing Industries of India’, notes that the country is now a leader among developing countries in some high energy-intensive segments. In chemical products, basic metals and textiles, the size of Indian manufacturing as a proportion of all developing countries put together is 22.2 per cent, 25 per cent and 16.8 per cent, respectively.
These sectors are also responsible for consuming high-energy resources when compared to global leaders such as Japan, says Unido.
“In India, there are some sectors which have showed efficiency of energy but there is potential to further reduce energy consumption,” said Shyam Upadhyaya, chief statistician of Unido
According to the report, some of the manufacturing industries in India that fall under the high energy category were textile manufacturing, paper products, refined petroleum products, chemicals, basic metals and non-mineral items.
“India’s high growth of industrial production has made significant impact on improvement of various indicators of industrial performance. In other words, higher output growth rates have allowed Indian industry to improve major performance indicators such as labour productivity, structural change ( e.g. share of medium and high technology industries in the overall output has gone up), and increase in exports,” the report stated.
Some low-energy manufacturing sectors were tobacco, machinery, motor vehicles and electrical machinery.
The report says India considerably lags behind Thailand, Bangladesh, Taiwan, Malaysia, Vietnam and the Philippines in some sectors such as apparel, office and computing equipment and radio and television.
In India and Indonesia, manufactured exports have recently started growing, whereas in China, Japan and Korea, this had been happening for a while. “There has been significant growth in the share of manufactured goods in India’s exports. India’s manufactured export can still grow fast, because it is not so high as compared to other major Asian economies,” Upadhyaya added.
