India needs a new manufacturing revolution for sustained development and growth, Indian Ambassador to Venezuela Smita Purushottam said Saturday.
"India needs a new manufacturing revolution for sustained development and growth. This can be ensured through restructuring of higher education, making it innovation-centred and pumping more investment in research and development," she said at the national lecture series on "Building a high-tech economic foundation in India" organised by the Mangalayatan University here.
Purushottam stressed on two core areas: Development innovation through education and making India's growth story intact by a strong manufacturing sector like that of China.
"We should radically transform our education system, empower universities to do research and prepare a strong network among universities, industry and government laboratories. Second, we should focus on manufacturing sector, as we are still importing over 70 percent machine tools, 70 percent defence requirements and 90 percent modern telecommunication items," she said.
"India has become a service sector-based economy while China promoted manufacturing sector-based models of development from the beginning and is now trying to transform it into high-end technology," Purushottam added.
