Industrial, manufacturing policies up for review: Nirmala Sitharaman
New Delhi: The government is revisiting its industrial and manufacturing policies to ensure India's preparedness to tackle new challenges of Industrial Revolution 4.0, Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said.
Also under study are achievements of National Investment and Manufacturing Zones (NIMZs).
"You have a manufacturing policy of 2009, industrial policy of 2011. We have created lots of NIMZs all over the country and many of them are yet to get the full force of what they were planned to be," Sitharaman told PTI.
The review takes place in view of Make in India and the fast pace of the industrial revolution in the world, she said, adding that "we are also saying we want India to be a manufacturing hub and increase share of manufacturing in GDP to 25 per cent".
"How all these are going to come into one so that everything we do addresses each one of these concerns and at the same time attains these objectives," the minister said. "And the objectives are that you want India to be a manufacturing hub and you want to be sure you do not lose out on the knowledge-based revolution."
For this, she suggested, the government has to talk to the industry to know their preparedness about robotics and their capability of integrating the Internet-based revolution.
"How ready is our Indian industry for it? Are they fully ready, somewhat ready or not ready at all, we need to have a picture about this because only when you have a picture, you will plan to help them... All this is possible only when you understand the impact of what this revolution is going to be. So, we are doing this review of policies," the minister explained.
The commerce and industry ministry has recently constituted a task force on artificial intelligence, which will provide feeds for this policy review, Sitharaman said, adding that it would also "tell us what measures we have to take to which industry, to what level on robotics, on artificial intelligence and Internet of Things".
