India Inc urges new technology to transform manufacturing

Indian industry leaders on Sunday stressed the need to bring in new technology into the country's manufacturing, rather than depend solely on cheap labour, to make the Make In India initiative a success.

"There will be migration of large-scale low cost factories from China to India. But that shouldn't be the only manufacturing India does," Mahindra & Mahindra chairman Anand Mahindra said at the CNN Asia Business Forum held as part of the ongoing Make India India Week here.

"Is there going to be a disruption in the way we 'Make in India'. Manufacturing should be democratised and decentralised," he said.

"India has a track record of seting up world class cement, textile factories and oil refineries. We have to take India to the next level," said Kumar Mangalam Birla, chairman of the Aditya Birla Group.

"New skills such as use of algorithm remote sensing must be used in manufacturing to remain constantly contemporary," he said.

"We as a country are highly innovative. It is part of our DNA," added Birla.

Describing India as a "highly innovative place," American multinational General Electric's South Asia chief executive, Banmali Agrawala, said: "We're pressing the pedal on getting digital."