New Delhi: Government is likely to expand the scope of ‘Make in India’ programme by including five more sectors like gems and jewellery to boost growth in the manufacturing sector.
The government has identified 25 sectors, including pharmaceuticals, automobiles, textiles, aviation, mining, chemicals, which have potential to make India a leader in their respective fields.
“Five more sectors are expected to be added, including gems and jewellery and SMEs (small and medium enterprises). The aim is to boost manufacturing sector’s growth and increase its share in the country’s GDP,” an official said.
In these sectors, substantial work would be done to identify growth drivers, investment opportunities, FDI policy, sectoral policies and specific reasons to invest.
The manufacturing sector now contributes about 16-17 per cent and the government aims to increase it to 25 per cent by 2022.
The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) has already announced a series of steps to improve ease of doing business in the country and boost manufacturing.
The DIPP has also set up an 8-member expert panel for quick redressal of grievances and queries of global and domestic investors.
Dashing hopes of recovery, industrial production contracted by 4.2 per cent in October, the sharpest decline in at least two years, on poor show by manufacturing sector and dip in the output of capital as well as consumer goods.
Manufacturing output, which constitutes over 75 per cent of the index, contracted by 7.6 per cent in October, compared to a dip of 1.3 per cent in the same month a year ago.
For April-October, the sector saw an output growth of 0.7 per cent, compared to a contraction 0.1 per cent in the year-ago period. Overall, 16 of the 22 industry groups in manufacturing showed negative growth in October.
Modi had launched the ambitious ‘Make in India’ programme in September to attract overseas investments and make the country a global manufacturing hub.