NEW DELHI: India has not given importance to the manufacturing sector and is lagging behind, which has allowed China to capture the markets, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Saturday.
Speaking at the Niti Aayog Governing Council Meeting, Kejriwal said that Centre and state governments should come together to build manufacturing hubs across the country, to provide facilities, and give tax breaks to MSMEs, manufacturers, and industrialists, for import substitutes and exports.
“Our country is lagging behind in the manufacturing sector. We should aggressively pursue it. This will help them make products that are cheaper than China and create jobs. This will also help us overtake China in this field and India’s GDP growth,” he said.
“We witnessed that India had to confront two issues in the last year. First is Covid-19, which hugely affected the manufacturing sector and many jobs were lost. Secondly, while China has been challenging us on the border, on the other hand, it has captured our markets and its products are replacing Indian products on a large scale,” he added.
Kejriwal said that youth possess potential and the energy to start new businesses and there is an urgent need to aggressively promote start-ups.“If the Centre and states come together and provide facilities to our youth, we will have a huge contribution to India’s progress. I believe we all will find a resolution towards expanding the manufacturing sector,” he noted.