Member Secretary, National Manufacturing Competitiveness Council (NMCC), Ajay Shankar has said that thrust on Innovation to attain excellence and quality holds the key to spur growth in Indian manufacturing sector in the present competitive world scenario.

"Spending money is not the measure to innovate, we need to encourage pool of energetic young Indians and crop up innovation within them to exert excellence. We must change our traditional perception towards manufacturing and create a culture of innovation within our organizations," he said while addressing the 4th Manufacturing Innovation Conclave organized by the Confederation of Indian Industry, in New Delhi on Friday.

Emphasizing on the need of Research and Development (R&D), Jayant Davar, Immediate Past Chairman, CII Northern Region, said, "In India, the R&D expenditure is very low in comparison to countries like US, China and Israel. Industry needs to invest more on R&D and innovation to spur growth in the Manufacturing Sector. Manufacturing growth in turn is primarily the result of innovation and we need to measure innovation capabilities and performance of countries around the world to evaluate progress and priorities."

M M Singh, Chief Mentor, Maruti Suzuki India Ltd shared, "Innovation in sourcing, process and management plays decisive role in manufacturing sector."

He added that challenges give opportunities to think and improvise new trends of opportunities lying within our grasp and reach. He said that flexible concept is important to cultivate innovation as a culture in an organization.

He further added that we need to involve everyone in an organization to exchange the ideas collectively to drive Innovation as a practice. He opined that the key of innovation is in our hand but we need think differently to unlock the door of Innovation.

Naresh N Shahani, Founder & Managing Director, BMGI, said, "In the present scenario, the rate of adaption is very high and we need to sustain it for long-term. Innovation has to be inculcated in the DNA of organizations."

Sameer Gupta, Vice Chairman, CII UP State Council said, "Indian manufacturing sector is a diverse and vibrant industry that plays a significant role in driving the economy. We need to introduce a systematic approach to build an innovative manufacturing system. This will ultimately contribute to the future robustness of this industry."

The Conclave witnessed the presence of eminent speakers from companies like Ricoh, Rolls Royce, Siemens, Autodesk, NBC, Autodesk, HCL, Polaris, Rockwell, Ingersoll and other.