'India needs to re-orient its policy towards manufacturing sector'

BR Virmani, chairman of the Centre for Organisation Research and Development in Management (CORD-M), on Thursday emphasised the need for re-orienting the country’s policy towards the manufacturing sector so as to beat international competition.

Delivering the keynote address at the national conference on ‘Accelerating India’s Economic Growth: Is Manufacturing a Prime Driver?’, organised by Vignana Jyothi Institute of Management (VJIM) here today, Virmani said the country’s manufacturing sector on Thursday faced tough competition and hence needed to reduce bureaucratic hurdles and bring in a single-window system like in Malaysia.

“For example, our manufacturing industries like toys, watches, electronic goods and shoes are gradually being shifted to China or other emerging countries. Keeping this in view, we have to re-orient our policy towards the manufacturing sector, upgrade our technology continuously and develop a technology transfer system,” he said.

Indian organisations need to develop new strategies and technologies, and participate in the global markets while meeting the demand within the country, he added.

According Ravi Raghavan, managing director of Tecumseh Products India, defining strategies and focus industries (like low to medium volume, customised and engineered products), as has been done in China, and identifying the competitive advantage of India would help the sector grow much faster.

"The sector should identify the competitor advantage to India as China is losing its advantage in manufacturing. Once its currency appreciates, its exports will come down. On the contrary, there are growing opportunities for India, including high penetration, high demand and highly-skilled and low-cost labour. Hence, the government has to incentivise domestic value-addition by promoting local sourcing and increasing the demand by incentivising exports," Raghavan said.