India keen on Atmanirbharta in mfg space: Sitharaman

New Delhi: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday said India needs to ramp up its manufacturing sector to increase its share in the global value chain and become ‘Atmanirbhar’.

Addressing the captains of the Indian industry at a CII Annual Business Summit, the minister also underlined the need of achieving greater sophistication in product manufacturing and policy support.

“I also want to underline much against the advice given by some economists that India should no longer be looking at manufacturing or ramping up manufacturing. I like to highlight the fact that manufacturing must increase. India must also increase with the help of policies its (manufacturing) share in the global value chain,” she said.

Some of the economists including former RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan have expressed the opinion that India should rather focus on the services sector rather than manufacturing as it has missed that opportunity. China’s model of manufacturing-led growth cannot be replicated any more. However, Sitharaman said, expanding manufacturing will help India become self-reliant. She also expressed hope that India still has an opportunity to ramp up its manufacturing capability as the world is looking at China plus one strategy post-Covid-19. Quoting a Capgemini Research Institute report released in May, she said, India figures at the top of the list of investment destinations for senior executives in Europe and in the US, who are looking to reduce their dependence on China and shift part of their manufacturing capacity to emerging markets.