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National Manufacturing Mission to be launched next month: NITI CEO
The National Manufacturing Mission, announced in the 2025-26 (FY26) Budget, will be formally announced next month, NITI Aayog Chief Executive Officer (CEO) B V R Subrahmanyam said on Friday.
The mission aims to propel India's manufacturing sector to a $7.5 trillion economy by 2047.
'We need a body with teeth, which can get things done. So, we are looking at how it is to be structured, the kind of muscle it needs to get things done spread across departments,' Subrahmanyam said at the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Annual Business Summit here. The mission is in the final stage, he said.
In her Budget speech in February, the finance minister had said the National Manufacturing Mission would focus on five focal areas, i.e., ease and cost of doing business, future-ready workforce for in-demand jobs, a vibrant and dynamic micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) sector, availability of technology, and quality products.
The mission will also support clean-tech manufacturing to improve domestic value addition, and build an ecosystem for solar photovoltaics (PV) cells, EV batteries, motors and controllers, electrolysers, wind turbines, high voltage transmission equipment, and grid-scale batteries.
'It should be an overarching body, which has the power to give directions, control, and ensure that things get done… the idea is to understand, hand-hold, and see that these sectors get transformed within five to 10 years, in line with the mission's goal to achieve results by 2030 to 2035,' the CEO added.
Citing the example of China's 'Made in China 2025' mission, prepared in the previous decade, that helped the neighbouring country become the largest automobile exporter from being a non-entity, the CEO said, NITI has probed their progress and mission in great detail.
The mission will also look at skewed regional imbalances in manufacturing to ensure that the push is pan-Indian.
A large part of the mission will be skilling initiatives by the Centre, with the Aayog looking to fundamentally change India's skilling framework. The government is also deliberating on new ideas like a 'skill passport' – the passport will be a record of a person's employable skills, keep an updated account of the skilling an individual goes through, and the number of times they have gone for reskilling and upskilling.
The CEO also added that the industrial training institutes should be handed over to the respective industry – the government can fund it, but only industry has a handle on what the contemporary relevant skills are at a local level.
The Aayog is also working on a net-zero carbon emission modelling framework.
'We don't have a pathway for the net-zero commitment by 2070. We've modelled it and next month we'll be announcing the pathway and making the model public... people can tinker with, and play multiple pathways to the same outcome,' Subrahmanyam said.
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