Thaindian News

Bangalore, June 3 (IANS) The Indian commerce ministry has drafted a new policy to identify key areas for increasing the share of the manufacturing sector in the national gross domestic product (GDP), a central minister said Friday.

“The ministry has prepared a policy document on the future of the Indian manufacturing sector. The document will be discussed at a high-level committee on the sector June 9 in New Delhi to be chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh,” Commerce Minister Anand Sharma told reporters here.

The policy stresses on the need to identify key instrumentalities for augmenting the share of the manufacturing sector in the GDP to 25 percent by 2025 from 15 percent currently.

“To achieve the ambitious target, the sector will have to grow at the rate of 12-14 percent annually and contribute significantly to enable the GDP to grow at nine percent per annum over the next 15 years and create 100 million jobs by 2025,” Sharma said at a technology function on the outskirts of the city.

Noting that the manufacturing sector had to be given a greater push for growing in double digit every year, Sharma said as engine of the country’s economy, the sector should leverage the growth in other key sectors such as agriculture and services.

Sharma was in this tech hub to lay the foundation stone for the Nano Manufacturing Technology Centre (NMTC) and the Academy of Excellence for Advance Manufacturing Technology (AEAMT) at the Central Manufacturing Technology Institute (CMTI).

The NMTC is being set up with an investment of Rs.120 crore in the institute campus.

The new facility will also have a Rs.6-crore direct metal deposition system and a Rs.3.8-crore Femto laser machining centre for research and technology development.

The Rs.20-crore AEAMT will focus on human resource development in advanced manufacturing technologies and create ‘job ready engineers’ for the sector.

As flagship projects of the central government, NMTC and AEAMT are funded under the 11th Five-Year Plan by the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) of the ministry.

Sharma also unveiled the Rs.10-crore Advanced Machine Tool Testing Facility (AMTTF), set up in the institute as a public-private partnership initiative with equity participation by the DIPI, CMTI and the Indian Machine Tools Manufacturers’ Association (IMTMA).

Interacting with the industry chief executives at a function in the city later, Sharma lauded the four southern states for being a major driver of the country’s economic growth, contributing 22 percent to the GDP and 28 percent in employment generation.

“The GDP of the southern region has potential to touch $700 billion by 2016 and $1.2 trillion by 2020 from $300 billion in 2010,” Sharma added.