Moving in the right direction

It has come as a relief that the government is now focusing on enhancing the potential of the manufacturing sector. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s chairing the High Level Committee on manufacturing can indeed be seen as an indication that the government is serious in its commitment to bring about a major facelift to this sector. I strongly feel that competitiveness in manufacturing is the need of the day if we are to achieve more than 8 percent growth.

India's manufacturing sector has a massive investment requirement of $135 billion and there is an urgent need to bring in reforms, to streamline all laws to woo investors. Foreign Direct Investment will help in bringing with it modern technology and business practices and will help in increasing the competitiveness of the domestic industry.

In my opinion, the authorities should begin by taking up certain sectors including textiles and garments and IT hardware and electronics for consideration and then rope in the other sectors too.

Having said that, we will also have to look into related core areas like labour law reforms, skilled man-power and other similar fields that have for long been hurting our manufacturing sector.

Moreover, an enhanced coordination between the various departments is a must to ensure that maximum output is achieved.