‘Manufacturing in India must reach for global standards to achieve success,’ said Mr Amitabh Kant, Chief Executive Officer, National Institution for Transforming India (NITI Aayog). He was speaking at the Annual Session 2017 of the Confederation of Indian Industry  (CII) at New Delhi today.

Greater digitization of manufacturing means that future manufacturing will be smart, safe and integrated. Indian companies should access global markets for better performance, he added. Greater standardization and push towards innovation with excellent incubator centers and research parks with industry-academia linkages will need to be pursued, he emphasized. The Atal Innovation Mission would equip 2,500 schools with technological tools to inculcate innovation and industry should participate as mentors, added Mr Kant.

Speaking on the skillset requirements for future manufacturing, Mr Kant emphasized that labour arbitrage will move to highly sophisticated and newer kind of jobs which would require constant skilling and reskilling.

He also stressed on the need to focus on those sectors where India has the advantage like electric mobility where could be a global leader. CII has identified 28 sectors where India could be top or second in the world in manufacturing.

Mr Dhruv M Sawhney, Past President, CII and Chairman & Managing Director, Triveni Turbine Ltd emphasized that technology will be the key differentiator for future manufacturing, both in India and globally. This will require a change in manufacturing mindset to thinking globally from locally. Manufacturing will need to match global standards and focus on customer satisfaction, he stressed.  

On the future of pharmaceuticals manufacturing, Mr Rajiv I Modi, Chairman & Managing Director, Cadila Pharmaceuticals Limited acknowledged that the sector could emerge as a global manufacturing hubs. However, he stressed that going forward there was need to for taking bold steps towards greater standardization and have a clearly policy roadmap for achieving the goal.  

Mr Anant J Talaulicar, Chairman, CII National Council on Manufacturing Chairman & Managing Director, Cummins India Ltd emphasized that manufacturing sector has huge multiplier effect and the growth of the sector is crucial for creating jobs. He said that CII has identified 28 manufacturing sectors as champions. The CII Recipe for Excellence is an online tool for manufacturing companies to benchmark their competitiveness levels, he stated.

New Delhi

28 April, 2017