Key Sectors to Position India as a Global Manufacturing Hub

Prelims: Current events of national and international importance | Economy

Why in News?

Recently, NITI Aayog has released the report titled “Key Sectors to Position India as a Global Manufacturing Hub”.

Objective – To identify the major high-potential sectors that can fuel India’s ambition to become a global manufacturing powerhouse through a structured and data-driven framework.
Preparation – In collaboration with CRISIL Intelligence.
The report narrows down 62 manufacturing sectors to 12 priority sectors where India can realistically achieve global leadership by 2047.

12 Priority Sector manufacturing hub.upsc

4 Sectors
- Chemicals,
- Telecom & Networking Equipment,
- Textiles and
- Solar Photovoltaic manufacturing.
It will be followed by assessments of eight more sectors.

4 key focus sectors

4 phases of structuring
- Shortlisting Sectors Based on Relative Attractiveness
- Comprehensive Assessment of Shortlisted Sectors
- Benchmarking International Best Practices
- Developing Actionable Recommendations & Way Forward

Key Findings

Chemical Sector

The domestic chemicals industry is broadly led by 3 key consumption segments
- Petrochemicals and organic chemicals,
- Speciality chemicals, and
- Inorganic chemicals.
Petrochemicals & organic chemicals – Largest segment & includes polymers, synthetic fibres, performance plastics, building blocks, intermediates and end-products.

Textiles Sector

GDP Contribution – It contributes approximately 2% to national GDP, 11% to manufacturing GVA, and 9% of merchandise exports.
Employment – It is the 2^nd largest employer after agriculture, providing livelihoods to more than 45 million people & supporting widespread MSME-led industrial development.
Exports – In 2025, textile products exported worth USD 37.7 billion & accounted for 4.1% of global textile and apparel exports, making it the 6^th largest textile exporter globally.

Telecom & Networking Equipment Sector

Market Size – Currently the world’s 2^nd largest telecommunications market with more than 1.2 billion subscribers, approximately 85% telecom penetration, and nearly 75% internet usage.
Target – National Telecom Policy 2025 (NTP-25) targets
- Doubling the sector’s contribution to GDP,
- Doubling exports of telecom products and services,
- Creating one million new jobs, and
- Significantly increasing investment and R&D expenditure by 2030.

Solar PV Sector

Installed Capacity & Target – India had installed 106 GW of solar capacity by March 2025 and needs to add about 174 GW to meet the 2030 target of 280 GW of solar capacity.

References