India eyes ‘global manufacturing powerhouse’ status with budget boost

India’s newly unveiled budget signals a bid to cement its status as a global manufacturing powerhouse through a raft of policy measures, but analysts say the US$630 billion allocation will still require supplement as the country seeks new markets to diversify its trade.The measures, rolled out in Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s budget speech on Sunday, are seen to have addressed two critical issues – creating jobs for young workers, comprising the world’s largest youth pool, as well as ensuring that the country is able to leverage several free-trade agreements to significantly boost exports.Funds allocated to manufacturing industries include 100 billion rupees (US$1 billion) to establish India as a biopharma hub, 100 billion rupees for container manufacturing and 50 billion rupees for semiconductor and display manufacturing.The total budget marked a 7.7 per cent increase from last year’s estimates.Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman says the government will scale up manufacturing in key sectors and revive legacy industrial clusters to boost efficiency. Photo: EPASitharaman said the government would scale up manufacturing in seven strategic sectors including biopharma, semiconductors, electronics components and rare earth magnets. Three chemical production parks will be set up to reduce import dependency.