SME Times News Bureau | 24 Mar, 2021
A meeting of the Consultative Committee of the Members
of Parliament attached to the Ministry of Commerce and Industry was held on
Wednesday, under the chairmanship of Minister of state for Commerce and
Industry Som Parkash.
The agenda for the meeting was “Strengthening
manufacturing base in
India”.
The members were informed that strong growth in
the annual average growth in the Indian manufacturing sector during 2014-15 to
2019-20 was 6.5%. The sector accounts for nearly 16% of the gross value
added (GVA) and employs about 12% of the country’s work force.
In the last 6 years, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade
(DPIIT) has taken various measures to strengthen the manufacturing base in
India.
The “Make in India” initiative was launched, with
the objective of facilitating investment, fostering innovation, building best
in class manufacturing infrastructure, making it easy to do business and
enhancing skill development.
Under Make in India 2.0, the emphasis now is on
24 sub-sectors which have been chosen on strengths and competitive edge of
Indian industries, need for import substitution, potential for exports and
increased employability.
Further, keeping in view India’s vision of
becoming Atmanirbhar and to enhance India’s manufacturing capabilities and
exports, an outlay of Rs.1.97 lakh crore has been announced in the Union Budget
2021-22 for Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Schemes for 13 key sectors for a
period of 5 years starting from next fiscal year.
The Union Cabinet has also approved constitution
of an Empowered Group of Secretaries and also Project Development Cells (PDC)
in Ministries/Departments to fast track investments.
India has also undertaken a number of steps to
improve Ease of doing business in the country which is reflected in its
improvement in ranking in the World Bank’s EODB Report from 142 in 2014 to 63
in 2020.
These steps would boost economic activity
including the manufacturing sector. The Government is also working to
reduce over 6,000 instances of compliance burden on businesses and citizens.
The Government has also developed the Industrial
Information System now been known as India Industrial Land bank and a GIS based
system which has approximately 4,000 industrial parks geo-tagged using
satellite imaginary.
The system has been integrated with industry
based GIS System of 13 States. In addition, industrial park rating system
has been undertaken to rate the best performing industrial parks across the
country, identifying interventions and serving as a decision support system for
investors and policy makers.
The Investment Clearance Cell (ICC) is being set
up to facilitate and support businesses through a one stop digital platform -
the National Single Window System.
The platform is planned
to be launched with select States by 15th April, 2021. In
order to provide safe, reliable, quality goods, minimizing health hazards to
consumers and promoting exports and import substitution, technical
regulations/quality control orders are issued by the Government of India.