Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has formed a Group of Ministers (GoM) headed by Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar to look into and resolve inter-ministerial differences that forced deferment of the new National Manufacturing Policy by the Union Cabinet last week.
The National Manufacturing Policy, placed before the Cabinet on September 15, had to be deferred following serious differences among the council of ministers, including objections by the Ministry of Environment and Forests and the Labour Ministry, on the issues of relaxing green and labour laws in the proposed mega-industrial enclaves.
The manufacturing policy, being piloted by the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), aims at creating 220 million jobs in the next 15 years and taking the share of the sector to 25 per cent of the country's GDP by 2020 from 15-16 per cent at present. Besides Mr. Pawar, the GoM would comprise Environment Minister, Jayanthi Natrajan, Labour Minister, Mallikarjun Kharge, Commerce Minister, Anand Sharma, Union Law and Justice Minister Salman Khurshid and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Minister Virbhadra Singh.
