Letter to BS: Govt should incentivise real estate and construction

If we hope to be a globally competitive manufacturer, technology adoption, not cheap labour, is the way ahead

Radhicka Kapoor’s opinion piece “A push for labour-intensive manufacturing” (June 30) was very well argued but I think her prescription is wrong. The days of cheap labour being a great ad­vantage in manufacturing are long go­ne. At any rate, our labour productivity and quality no­rms have lagged behind China and I doubt we will ever catch up quickly eno­ugh. Any­way, labour de­pendence in ma­nufacturing will reduce sharply post Covid as any company that can afford it will depend on higher automation and robotics. Also, if we hope to be a globally competitive manufacturer, technology adoption, not cheap labour, is the