India's experience of manufacturing GDP growth different: NITI member

India's experience has been different compared to the rest of the world in terms of the rise and peaking of its manufacturing GDP, NITI Aayog member Arvind Virmani said on Wednesday, while stressing on creation of a competitive economy.

Addressing an event organised by the Institute for Studies in Industrial Development (ISID), Virmani further said India has positioned itself in the last ten years with policy reforms related to product and services space.

"India's experience has been different compared to the rest of the world in terms of the rise and peaking of its manufacturing GDP and then a plateau that has been witnessed for the last many years," he said.

According to Virmani, the country has put in dynamism for entrepreneurship and startups, and has instituted public sector and institutional reforms.

"There is a need of the creation of a competitive economy and not just a few monopoly segments with reduced information barriers and breaking asymmetric information circuits," he opined.

According to the latest government data, manufacturing sector's share in India's GDP is estimated at around 17 per cent currently.

He noted that the government has a crucial role to play in the provisioning of public good, regulation of externalities, ensuring a pro-competition and pro-investment market environment as well as ensuring welfare transfers and empowering every group in every geography.

"Meanwhile, the private sector needs to play its role to compete, innovate, and invest," he said, adding that the new opportunity in front of the country is in the form of India's dynamic comparative advantage in its demographic dividend.

Also speaking at the event, ISID director Nagesh Kumar emphasised that India was at an opportune moment to take stock of the country's achievements since independence and lay out the roadmap for the future and the vision of a Viksit Bharat by 2047.

"We need to create more decent jobs for our youthful workforce," he said.