Around Rs 100 crore have been disbursed so far by the government as grant under the Scheme for Enhancement of Competitiveness of the Capital Goods Sector, a senior government official said today.
In September 2014, the Modi government launched the scheme, with an estimated outlay of Rs 930.96 crore, to make the Indian capital goods sector globally competitive.
"We have received many proposals (under the scheme) and so far, 20 of them have been approved. Nearly Rs 300 crore worth of proposals were approved, out of which around Rs 100 crore have been disbursed so far," Secretary of Department of Heavy Industries, Girish Shankar, told reporters here.
He said that the remaining Rs 200 crore would be tied up soon.
Under the scheme, contribution from the government has been around Rs 581.22 crore and the balance Rs 349.74 crore would be contributed by the stakeholder industries.
The scheme has five components -- creation of advanced centres of excellence, common engineering facility centre for textile machinery and testing and certification centre for earth moving machineries, establishment of integrated industrial infrastructure facilities and creation of a Technology Acquisition Fund.
"The growth driver for the manufacturing sector has always been automobile. But with the opening up of defence and railway sectors for foreign investments, we hope they (sectors) will drive the demand for capital goods," Shankar said.
He said that the country is expecting to witness a growth of 9.5 per cent in the manufacturing sector this year, which will be driven by automobile, defence and railways industries.
"As per various schemes, we are expecting a three-fold increase in growth in capital goods production and employment by 2025 and 3.5 times increase in manufacturing sector by 2026," Shankar said.
The department of heavy industries has also partnered with Hannover Milano Fairs India to hold the 10th edition of industrial and engineering trade fair 'Win India 2016' from December 1-3 in Bandra in the metropolis.
"Win India 2016 will be an avenue for the industry to launch and showcase new products and industry 4.0 technologies," he added.
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