Shift Away Excessive Focus to Mfg

New Delhi, July 9 (UNI) An industry body has advocated the need for larger concentration on manufacturing, agriculture, services and other allied sector that contribute about 95 per cent to GDP rather than confining to IT and ITeS which contribute a meager five per cent to national GDP.

''The time has come when policy makers attention should be drawn towards sectors that contribute 70 per cent of government revenues and provide huge employment opportunities on sustained basis,'' said Assocham President Venugopal N Dhoot in a statement.

To accelerate manufacturing, the small and medium enterprises need to be encouraged, the industry body suggested.

According to statistics, SSI's are 7 per cent of India's GDP.

In the world 99.7 per cent of organisations are SMEs. SMEs contribute 85 per cent to the Indian GDP.

SMEs' in the US, Japan, Taiwan, Europe, South East Asia, Brazil means enterprises with about Rs 150 to Rs 350 crores turnover and about Rs 80 to Rs 100 crores investment.

Mr Dhoot suggested that the definition of SSI needs to be changed and all government regulations of SME's in the country to fall in line with international norms.

The sectors which will have tremendous growth potential to accelerate manufacturing comprise machine tools, auto components, pharmaceuticals and engineering, besides textiles and therefore create ample opportunities for employment.

In a bid to achieve the projected acceleration in manufacturing growth, the focus and efforts of the policy makers should be towards creating environment for higher investments and also induction of technologies in sectors such as textiles, engineering, auto components and machine tools.

Lowering cost of manufacturing in the country ought to be one of the prime focus areas in which there should be constant focus on innovations to take on global competition, stressed Assocham President.

According to Assocham, a comprehensive National Energy Policy needs to be announced early for an integrated approach to energy strategy. Attempts should be made to increase FDI inflows.

Investments need to be made in the power sector through public private partnerships and appropriate reforms.

A policy package should be devised for the industries with high export potential and there should be easy exit for the loss making companies.

Growth of retail industry and real estates should be encouraged, Assocham suggested.

UNI