NEW DELHI, Feb 15:
President Pranab Mukherjee today exuded confidence that the Indian economy will bounce back to 8 per cent growth levels and said engineering sector could play a vital role in propelling it.
“Though our economic growth has recently declined somewhat, I am confident that we will be able to bring the deceleration to a halt and revert to the eight per cent growth levels that we attained many times in the past,” Mukherjee said inaugurating the 20th International Engineering and Technology Fair (IETF) by CII.
The underline growth impetus remains strong due to factors like continued rise in per capita income and expanding middle class consumers, he said adding, engineering sector could facilitate faster economic development.
“Our thrust on infrastructure development and industrial production provided further filip to this (engineering) sector…Large amount of investments is envisaged in the key sectors such as power and transportation,” Mukherjee said while calling for private sector investments.
These investments would create opportunities for business operating in the engineering sector, he said.
At the same time he urged the companies to focus on “productivity and competitiveness” saying new operating models were needed to promote the manufacturing sector.
“The contribution of manufacturing to total employment in India is about 11 per cent which is much lower than that of the emerging countries. The shares of the manufacturing in total employment is between 15 to 30 per cent (in those countries)” he said.
Stressing that the National Manufacturing Policy 2011 envisaged creation of 100 million additional jobs in the manufacturing sector by 2025, he said India needed to enhance its “capabilities on major fronts like primarily human skill , hardware and knowledge technology”.
Identifying innovation is a key management strategy for growth, Mukherjee said adding “we must lay emphasis on its various dimensions such as processing innovation, product, business model and technology and strong capability of designing.”
He also stressed on the need to support engineering MSMEs saying, “Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) sector have come to occupy an important position in our economy.
“It contributes about 45 per cent of the manufacturing output and over 40 per cent of total exports of our country. In over 29 million MSME units, about 69 million persons are employed.”
Mukherjee also urged Indian industry to focus on reducing carbon footprint and devising green technology for sustainable development.
More than 350 companies are participating in IETF for which Korea is a partner nation this time.
Mukherjee said both the nations enjoyed strong economic and commercial ties and Korean countries have built immense brand in the Indian market for the high quality and standard of their products. (PTI)
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