India eyes ‘global manufacturing powerhouse’ status with budget boost
The measures aim to boost production in key sectors such as biopharma and semiconductors, and increase support for smaller businesses
The measures, rolled out in Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s budget speech on Sunday, are seen to have addressed two critical issues – creating jobs for young workers, comprising the world’s largest youth pool, as well as ensuring that the country is able to leverage several free-trade agreements to significantly boost exports.
Funds allocated to manufacturing industries include 100 billion rupees (US$1 billion) to establish India as a biopharma hub, 100 billion rupees for container manufacturing and 50 billion rupees for semiconductor and display manufacturing.
The total budget marked a 7.7 per cent increase from last year’s estimates.
Sitharaman said the government would scale up manufacturing in seven strategic sectors including biopharma, semiconductors, electronics components and rare earth magnets. Three chemical production parks will be set up to reduce import dependency.