‘India must tap changing trends in manufacturing’ 

‘India must tap changing trends in manufacturing’ 

Context

India needs to consider bringing out appropriate policies soon to help its companies use their success in Information Technology and Information Technology-enabled Services to take advantage of the growing trend of “servicification” of manufacturing

2017 report titled ‘Trouble in the Making? The Future of Manufacturing-Led Development’.

Competition from Philippines

Speaking to The Hindu, Gaurav Nayyar, Economist in the World Bank Group’s Trade and Competitiveness Global Practice and the report’s co-author, said

• India may not have as many opportunities in the outsourcing industry as it had in the past couple of decades due to increasing competition from countries such as Philippines and owing to the impact of automation on the segment
• In another 12-15 years, when Industry 4.0 (the trend of data exchange and automation in manufacturing-related technologies) is much more firmly entrenched in Global Value Chains, companies across the world would look for countries with more skilled workers and professionals as well as uninterrupted and quality power supply for technologies such as 3D printing, in addition to a strong Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) regime. Therefore, India will need to undertake reforms in these areas, in addition to more initiatives on ease of doing business and infrastructure development, if it wants to attract more investment

New policy soon

According to the Indian government, the new ‘future-ready’ Industrial Policy, which is to be announced soon, will incorporate measures to facilitate the use of modern smart technologies such as IoT, artificial intelligence and robotics for advanced manufacturing

What India needs to be doing?

Therefore, India would need to swiftly announce suitable policies to help its companies to take advantage of the “opportunities in servicification of manufacturing by leveraging their success in software

Report’s observations

• The servicification of manufacturing is further enabled by using data that will play an increasingly important role in “smart” manufacturing
• Interconnected manufacturing –or the Internet of Things (IoT), where networks, machines, and computers are connected to the Internet– requires the sending and receiving of data across the entire production chain