Niti Aayog CEO: Manufacturing Mission Needs Powerful Commission

• A strong commission is needed to implement the National Manufacturing Mission effectively.
• Focus areas include skilling, MSMEs, tech access, and ease of doing business.
• Key reforms include urbanization, education overhaul, and global value chain integration.

BVR Subrahmanyam, CEO of Niti Aayog, said a powerful commission with the ability to deliver real results must back India’s National Manufacturing Mission, at the Confederation of Indian Industry Annual Business Summit.

The National Manufacturing Mission is a new initiative that has been proposed in the Union Budget 2025–26 to further boost the Make in India initiative at large, small, and medium industries. The National Manufacturing Mission plans to deliver policy support, execution support, and a governance framework for national and state governments.

Specific themes will include improving the ease of doing business to the needs of our future-ready tech workforce, supporting MSMEs, accessing appropriate technology, and enhancing the quality of products. A broad range of target sectors from clean energy and EVs, Toys, and labour-oriented industries will also be considered.

He said, "By end of this year, every state and UT will have a roadmap for themselves.. Manufacturing should at least grow at a rate of 15% annually to be able to reach the target of 25% of $30 trillion economy by 2047…so why would we need a national manufacturing mission? Industries run in places that are run majorly by states, and there are a lot of pain points at the state level".

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He stated, "Money is not the answer, to ensure industries become dominant. India’s mission must also have clear manufacturing goals identified and targets that are monitored monthly, quarterly and at multiple levels. We can even pick up sectors, where we have potential, or focus on clusters or frontier sectors".

Subrahmanyam shared more than 17 states and union territories have developed or are close to finalizing their manufacturing vision documents. He cautioned there are bigger challenges to overcome, such as addressing economic disparity between states, and gender inequity in the design system, with aspirations of achieving a $30 trillion economy by 2047, with manufacturing contributing $7.4 trillion.

He emphasized the urgency of acceleration urbanization to migrate population from 30% to 50% urbanization as a foundation to achieve rural-urban transformations. Other priorities include: greening the energy sector for the Net Zero 2070 target; reforming the education system; and rejuvenating manufacturing.

Subrahmanyam took inspiration from China’s manufacturing experience and urged restructured skilling programs to provide the workforce with core skills including math, English, and modern day industrial skills.

"Government needs to fund this skilling, and to make these youth employable, management should be handled by local industry associates. Government should not focus on too much control on the curriculum. It should simply be that the government foots the bill, but skilling is managed by the industry", he said.