No large country in the world has become developed without expanding its manufacturing base. This is a fact that India’s leaders know and cannot ignore. Our extraordinary success in IT Services cannot fill the development void created from lack of growth in manufacturing. This void is reflected in lack of absorption of  unskilled labour (getting released from agriculture) and absence of a large middle class.

Our aspirations to become a manufacturing powerhouse are high but the progress is slow. Manufacturing’s share of GDP for India decreased from 17.03% in 2010 to 13.64% in 2019. In countries like Vietnam and Bangladesh, manufacturing is growing and so is its contribution to GDP. In China, where economists believe manufacturing has already reached its peak prowess, it contributed more than 30% to its GDP in 2010.

https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NV.IND.MANF.ZS?end=2019&locations=VN&start=1985&view=chart

This is a sign of worry. India’s population has been stabilizing and it is currently going through the period of highest productive age. During this period, it is important to provide meaningful work to millions of low skilled workers. Otherwise the demographic dividend will turn into a curse resulting in social unrest.

While the overall picture looks dismal, there are certain segments where India has done well like two-wheeler manufacturing, pharmaceutical etc. India needs to replicate these success stories at a broader level. It specifically needs to do better in highly manual intensive industries like garments, shoe manufacturing etc.

India aims at achieving $1 trillion GVA from manufacturing in the next 5 years. It plans to improve the share of the sector to over 20 per cent in GVA. To accomplish this, many things need to converge – ease of doing business, favourable industrial policies, availability of skilled labour, large-scale institutional financing, physical infrastructure.

What is already working for India is the enormous ambition of its entrepreneurs.

Manufapp is being built with the vision to help manufacturers achieve this dream. It will help manufacturers manage their factory operations with ease, increasing productivity and reducing expenses.

We believe technology has impacted businesses like Travel, Hospitality, commerce, transportation and now it is the turn of Manufacturing. Manufapp wants to lead this change and bring innovation and technologies like AI, ML, IOT, Cloud computing in the hands of manufacturers.

This is going to be an exciting journey!