New Delhi, May 22 (IANS) Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal held a brainstorming session with senior officials of various ministries and captains of Indian industry on drawing up an action plan to strengthen the country’s manufacturing sector.

“Chaired a comprehensive and productive meeting with officials from key ministries and leading industry associations to strategize on boosting domestic manufacturing,” the minister said in a post on X.

“Reaffirmed the Government’s commitment to working closely with industry to expand manufacturing capacities, enhance quality standards and strengthen global competitiveness for building an Aatmanirbhar Bharat,” Goyal added.

The meeting comes against the backdrop of the Centre’s plan to expand India from a $3.7 trillion economy to a $30–35 trillion economy by 2047, in which manufacturing is expected to play a central role, with its share in GDP rising to at least 25 per cent from the current level of 16 to 17 per cent.

In this context, India’s manufacturing strategy has increasingly focused on the development of integrated manufacturing hubs, spatial ecosystems that combine physical infrastructure, regulatory support, common facilities, and connectivity. These hubs are designed to support scale, reduce transaction costs, and anchor long-term manufacturing activity, strengthening India’s position within domestic and global production networks.

To achieve this goal, the government’s manufacturing policy has shifted to infrastructure-led, integrated hub development to enable scale, reliability, and long-term industrial competitiveness, according to an official statement issued on Tuesday.

India’s infrastructure approach has undergone a structural transformation, with the focus moving from project-level execution to system-level planning. Such system-level planning directly enhances the effectiveness of manufacturing hubs by reducing bottlenecks, improving logistics efficiency, and supporting timely execution.

The Government’s capital expenditure has expanded from Rs 2 lakh crore in FY2014–15 to ₹12.2 lakh crore in FY2026–27 in a big push to infrastructure creation.

Global investment trends increasingly recognise India as a preferred manufacturing destination. The country is currently ranked as the third most sought-after manufacturing location worldwide. At the same time, the composition of production is evolving, with medium- and high-technology activities accounting for 46.3 per cent of total manufacturing value added, indicating a gradual shift towards more sophisticated industrial structures, the statement said.

MSMEs, which comprise 7.47 crore enterprises, account for 35.4 per cent of manufacturing output and anchor manufacturing hubs nationwide. This labour-intensive sector plays a key role in generating jobs in the economy and spurring economic growth.

The Union Budget for 2026-27 has proposed three chemical parks, seven PM MITRA parks, MSME clusters, and a Rs 10,000-crore Biopharma SHAKTI initiative to accelerate the pace of development.

–IANS

sps/vd