Manufacturing sector must grow 15% to contribute 25% of GDP by 2047: Niti Aayog chief

Speaking at a Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) event, the chief of NITI Aayog said manufacturing currently accounts for roughly 17 per cent of India's GDP.

"Manufacturing sector should be growing at 15 per cent atleast," he suggested. "That's the only way to rise from its current share of 17 per cent to 25 per cent."

Given that India's GDP will be USD 30 trillion when it becomes a developed nation by 2047, 25 per cent of it is projected to be contributed by the manufacturing sector (USD 7.5 trillion).

In that context, the NITI Aayog boss said reaching the USD 30 trillion GDP level will require a growth rate of about 7.5 per cent.

With India's annual GDP growing on average at 6.5 per cent, with 2023-24 being an exception with close to 9 per cent, the NITI Aayog chief said India must "bump up" its annual GDP by another 1 percentage point to 7.5 per cent.

To achieve that level of growth, he suggested that a few transformations are needed.

First, he called for more urbanisation. India's level of urbanisation is "very very low" at about 30%, and it has to go to upwards of 50 per cent.

"Many more cities and urban areas have to come up," he suggested.

In another suggestion, he said India has to increase its energy capacity, and make them carbon neutral.

However, a positive aspect of India's manufacturing growth story, according to him, is that the country is becoming a net exporter of mobile phones instead of a net importer. He said the defence sector is another area in which India is doing well.

In a not-so-good news, he also pointed out that India has less presence in the global value chain.

"We have not managed to crack it...Look at China, systematically over the past 30 years, it has placed itself at the heart of global value chains. Some or the other parts come from China, and there is a critical dependence on China. Shouldn't we be at the heart of global value chain?" he said.

He also spoke about the regional imbalance in manufacturing.

"There are five or six states in India accounting for 90 per cent of whatever is happening, be it domestic investment, manufacturing or foreign investment. What about the rest of India? We can't be on a two-speed track, everybody has to grow," the NITI Aayog boss supplemented.

Last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi called for states to develop their vision documents.

All the states are developing their individual roadmaps to contribute to the 'Viksit Bharat' dream. BVR Subrahmanyam said that by the end of 2025, all the states and UTs will have their vision document and roadmap for 2047.

"India is an aggregation of individual visions of small states. You cannot have a national vision, where states work in different directions. 17 states have either complete or on the verge of completion of their vision documents." (ANI)