'We Missed the Manufacturing Bus', Says External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar

India has missed the opportunity to scale up their manufacturing sector due to the lack of governance of the previous government and thus, manufacturing and infrastructure are the top priorities of the present government, stated S. Jaishankar, Minister of External Affairs of India, while addressing at the Kautilya Economic Conclave 2024.

“The manufacturing is the near past and, in a way the present. Yes, we miss the manufacturing bus - the kind of opportunities we could have much earlier. If you had done the earlier bit right, I would have positioned you well. It is important to recognise. A large country that doesn’t have manufacturing is not in the right position to deal with technology,” said the minister.

He criticised the previous government for not being able to achieve the target in terms of manufacturing, infrastructure, addressing poverty, promoting literacy and healthcare facilities, which other Asian countries could do. According to him, if a country fails to have adequate growth in the manufacturing sector, it will eventually fail to keep up with the technological advancement and reap the benefits out of the same. He stressed on the fact that India won’t be able to reap the benefits of the technology if the country does not have an industrial culture, and that kind of industrial culture won’t come if they don’t have the manufacturing.

“You have to get the manufacturing; you have to get the HR (human resources), you got to get the infrastructure; you got to get the global capability centre and the global ventures coming in,” added the minister.

The manufacturing sector of India witnessed a strong growth of 7 per cent in the April-June quarter, outpacing the 5 per cent growth recorded in the same period of the last fiscal year. However, this growth rate has retarded in this quarter as it declined by 1.9 per cent from the previous quarter’s growth.

Currently, the manufacturing sector contributes 17 per cent to the country’s GDP. However, the government aims to make it to 20 per cent by 2030.