BT India@100: Manufacturing is key for India to become a high-income country by 2047, say industry heads

India’s gross domestic product (GDP) is touching $3.5 trillion as the nation stands tall as the fifth largest economy in the world. But boosting its manufacturing in key sectors would be the key for India to become a high income country by 2047, when it celebrates its 100th independence, said industry leaders.

Talking at the Business Today India at 100 conclave in New Delhi on Saturday, country’s leading industrialist Baba Kalyani said the country needs to focus on certain key sectors and build its muscle around manufacturing to turn itself into a high income country. Kalyani is the Chairman and Managing Director of diversified manufacturing major Bharat Forge.

“India’s goal is become a high income country by 2047. To achieve the same, we need to focus on product manufacturing, especially in areas like semiconductors and medicines. In the past, in the 1980s, we missed the bus once and did not encourage local manufacturing of semiconductors, due to faulty government policies. But focusing on product manufacturing would be crucial to achieve our current goal,” said Kalyani.

BVR Mohan Reddy, Founder & Chairman of Cyient Ltd. - a  homebred multinational technology company that is focused on engineering, manufacturing and data analytics, among others - concurs. According to Reddy, while India has done much progress in the field of information technology (IT), the importance of product manufacturing cannot be ignored and would play an important role in building India’s future.

“The IT industry is already on a significant base of $250 billion revenue a year. But the pace at which changes are happening across the world, IT industry has to remodel and revitalise itself to cope up with it and augment the rapid changes. Re-skilling of the 5.6 million odd Indian IT professionals is important,” said Reddy.

While the IT industry is growing at a rapid pace - at 10 per cent CAGR (compound annual growth rate) - the extent of digital transformation that the country is undergoing is opening up more growth opportunities that may help mitigate some of the downside risks Indian IT industry face due to global uncertainties, he said. “Earlier, IT companies were primarily focused on overseas clients as adoption of technology was low in India. But rapid adoption technology at home is opening up new markets and sectors like BFSI (banking, financial services insurance) and agriculture."