India has not done well in manufacturing and it needs to create infrastructure for boosting industrial growth, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said today.
“We have not done very well in manufacturing, that is a valid point. We need to do a better job in the manufacturing sector. India needs to have much better infrastructure,” he said, addressing a meet at Pravasi Bharatiya Divas.
He said the 12th Five Year Plan (2012—17) document clearly outlines the importance of infrastructure for improving performance of the manufacturing sector.
It also emphasises on the importance of ease of doing business in the country which is one of the prerequisite to promote manufacturing activities.
Ahluwalia said the latest World Banks estimates ranked India at 134th on ease of doing business index, which is lower than the 131 rank earlier.
Under this index, the economies are ranked on their ease of doing business, from 1—189. Higher ranking means the regulatory environment is more conducive for business —— from starting operations to running them smoothly.
This index averages the country’s percentile rankings on 10 topics, made up of a variety of indicators, giving equal weight to each topic.
Ahluwalia said: “These estimates (index rankings) are given for different states. If every state were to do as well as the best state, India’s rank would go up from 134th to 67.
He added: “One of the things that we are trying to do at Planning Commission is working with our industrial groups to see how can ease of doing business be actually improved...
What we don’t have is enough number of companies that start small and actually grow to become bigger.”
Later, at an MSME award function, Ahluwalia emphasised on need for creating an economic environment for promoting small enterprises which can play greater role to improve performance of manufacturing sector.
