NEW DELHI, Feb 21 -The share of manufacturing in India’s gross domestic product (GDP) must increase to 26 per cent from the current 16 per cent to address job creation challenges, said Commerce, Industry & Textiles Minister Anand Sharma(Pic). The National Manufacturing Policy is one of the key instruments to achieve that goal, he said.
Sharma admitted that job creation is a major challenge for the nation and it is necessary to achieve a high rate of economic growth of around nine per cent per annum.
“High growth is not an option, but an imperative. The larger issue is not just numbers but the social dimension. If we fail to address the issue of job creation, the social cost will be unbearable,” he said.
The minister was speaking at a special Confederation of Indian Industry Interactive Session titled ‘Transforming India: Role of Youth’ at the St. Xavier College in Mumbai. To turn India into a major manufacturing hub, Sharma said the government is in the process of establishing 12 stand-alone world class industrial townships across the country.
Describing the upcoming Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) as the largest industrial infrastructure project in the world at present, he said nine of the 12 industrial townships fell under DMIC, with the 900 sq km Dholera Industrial Centre in Gujarat being the largest.
“We have gone beyond drawing board. Master Plans for seven projects have already been completed,” he said. Sharma also said that with a huge young population, India would have 57 million surplus skilled workers to absorb job opportunities across the world.
BERNAMA
