India is aiming to assume the role of a global manufacturer as companies relocate from China amid tight coronavirus restrictions, Tuhin Kanta Pandey, a secretary of India's Department of Investment and Public Assets Management (DIPAM), outlined.
"The world hopes that India will become their second pillar of production. The China plus one strategy over the next decade can become India's strategy. But for this we need to increase production," Pandey said at the Confederation of Indian Industry Summit on Global Economic Policy.
Manufacturing currently accounts for 16% of India's GDP, and Pandey has stated the need to increase this to around 25% over the coming years. He also said that this would lead to the creation of employment opportunities.
The latest figures show that while India's GDP rose by 6.3%, a sharp drop in the manufacturing sector has raised alarms. Analysts note that weak manufacturing activity is playing against the Indian government's efforts to attract global industrial companies to set up units in India and diversify away from China.