Indian industry to contribute 30 pc of GDP

{image-Indian industry_22092008.jpg news.oneindia.in}Mumbai, Sep 22: The Indian industry is capable of contributing 30 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and is slowly nudging towards it, a senior Central Government official said on Monday, Sep 22.

The true potential of the Indian industry's maturity to deliver global standards of production has been realised by foreign companies than industrialists within the country and this had been indicated by the flow of Foreign Direct Investments (FDI), Mr Ajay Shankar, Secretary for Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion in the Union Commerce and Industry Ministry, told the seventh CII Manufacturing Summit here. Last year the FDI was more than Foreign Institutional Investments (FIIs) in the country, he added.

He, however, would not hazard to guess how long it would take for the industry to reach 30 per cent GDP level. Mr Shankar, who inaugurated the two-day summit, said the major challenges facing the industry was skill development and infrastructure bottlenecks, especially for the small and medium enterprises. These challenges are being met by the government in partnership with the private sector.

He said the government had thrown open the Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) and other training facilities to the private sector. The Government was prepared to provide necessary support, he said.

He said the fact that a number of Indian companies were acquiring companies abroad also gave enough indication of the country setting global standards for production.

He singled out the automotive sector, where the success had been extremely high, saying that a number of auto component manufacturers were keeping up to produce spares in India. Apart from cheap labour, the technological capability of the Indian mindset was also being looked at, he added.

UNI