New Delhi: A Parliamentary panel Tuesday asked government to introduce modern and latest technology in order to raise the share of manufacturing in the GDP to 25 percent.
"The committee is of the considered view that the government's initiative for catapulting industrial share to 25 percent of the GDP will be difficult to achieve without infusion of modern, green and latest technology to our industrial/manufacturing base, more so, in the SME sector," the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Commerce said in its report.
However, it expressed apprehension that the ambitious goals of the national manufacturing policy (NMP) 2011 of enhancing the share of manufacturing in GDP to 25 percent and creation 100 million jobs over a decade would be "adversely affected given the extremely tardy pace of progress made under the policy".
The scheme for implementation of NMP is yet to be notified and its notification is pending approval of all the component under the policy.
Further, it said infrastructural bottlenecks and the discouraging business environment existing in the country need to be tackled with all vigour and the DIPP being the nodal agency for the industrial health of the country should take concrete strides in this regard.
"With the countries around the world turning to protectionism of domestic markets, the task cut out for the Make in India initiative is daunting," it said.
The committee said it understands that the capacity constraints in critical infrastructure sectors such as electricity and railways has led to reduced profitability of manufacturing industries which are logistics intensive as well as complex and complicated regulatory regime including land, environmental clearances, supply of critical inputs like coal, gas has further increased risks of project implementation and has led to low private sector investment in manufacturing activities in the recent years.
On the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor, it said any delay in getting timely approvals has direct impact on the process of achieving subsequent approvals thereby adversely impacting the actual expenditure.
The committee suggested the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) to closely monitor the projects' progress and pursue the concerned ministries and departments and states for expeditious action so as to ensure there are no cost/time overruns.
Taking "serious note", the committee said Rs 300 crore allocated for meeting cost of land and initial implementation cost for the exhibition-cum-convention centre here remained unutilised.
"The committee is appalled to note the progress in the matter," it said adding the DIPP is still to procure the land from DDA.
"The committee is of the considered opinion that such as lackadaisical approach of the department has made the construction and the functioning of the ECC invariable delayed," it said.
Further, it said the committee is perturbed by slash in funding for the special category states of Jammu and Kashmir and Uttarakhand.
"It notes that against year-wise outlay planned for 2015-16 of Rs 190 crore, the department had sought Rs 137 crore but only Rs 25 crore was allocated," it added.
