“Despite large number of reforms by the current government, the massive potential of our manufacturing hub still remains untapped.” Examine the reasons behind the same. What steps can be taken to boost the sector?

In furtherance of the ‘Make in India’ programme objective, the Government of India is planning to increase the pace of manufacturing hub from current 16 percent of the GDP to 25 percent. According to the report submitted by PwC, while on one hand, the government is making efforts to set up more and more industries on the other hand the potential of manufacturing hub still remains untapped since almost 80% of supply chain of manufacturing companies is still operating offline. The main obstacle which comes in the way of progress of the manufacturing units is that the companies are still far from being smart and are not able to keep pace with the current regime and fail to adapt to automation and digital technologies which can help in boosting their businesses.
Some of the few measures which can be taken to boost this sector are:
Creating awareness and changing of mind set of people

• Most of the industries are not able survive in the market the prime reason being that there is lack of awareness amongst the industries so as to measure the pros and cons of not keeping up with the latest technology.

Automation

• Digitisation of supply chain plays a crucial role in increasing the production activity and thus bringing profit to the company.
• Rationalization of the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) Policy

Updating the business processes

• It stresses on framing development programme for the improvement of manufacturing sectors.

Invest in R&D & Innovation

• To keep up with the global standards of manufacturing, it is important for a company to invest in Research & development and technology innovations.
• Adopting Smarter Machining Tools- Use of upgraded machines helps the manufacturing sector to survive in the competitive and innovative market.

Topics: GS-III: Changes in Industrial Policy and Their Effects On Industrial Growth