'Make in India': Government approves Rs 930-crore scheme to boost capital goods sector

NEW DELHI: Government today approved a Rs 930 crore scheme to bring competitiveness of domestic capital goods sector at par with global standards, which is first in the series of initiatives under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision of 'Make in India'.

"...scheme on enhancement of competitiveness in the Indian capital goods sector to be implemented in the current 12th Plan period (2012-17) and spilling over to the 13th Plan period with an estimated outlay of Rs 930.96 crore," an official release said.

The decision was taken at a meeting of the Cabinet Committee of Economic Affairs here in the capital.

According to the statement, the gross budgetary support from the government for the scheme would be Rs 581.22 crore and the balance Rs 349.74 crore would be contributed by the stakeholder industries.

"This is a pilot project, going ahead we plan to expand the project across the country. The total cost to be incurred for implementation of the entire project is around Rs 20,000 crore in coming years," Heavy Industries Minister Anant Geete told reporters here at a press conference after the CCEA decision.

He further said, "Since last 15 years small scale industry associations were demanding support from the government as they were unable to sustain because of global competition. Today the Narendra Modi led government has met this demand."

The scheme, on implementation, would attempt to make the Indian capital goods sector globally competitive. The Capital Goods value added contributes a fairly constant proportion of 9-12 per cent of the total manufacturing value added.

The sub sectors of Capital Goods covered under the scheme are mainly for Machine Tools, Textile Machinery, Construction and Mining Machinery, and Process Plant Machinery.

The scheme would address the issue of technological depth creation in the capital goods sector, besides creating common industrial facility centres.

The scheme has five components to achieve the desired result in pilot mode.

Firstly, it would create Advanced Centres of Excellence for R&D and Technology Development with National Centres of Excellence in Education and Technology such as Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi, IIT Bombay, IIT Madras, IIT Kharagpur and Central Manufacturing Technology Institute ( CMTI), Bangalore.

The second component relates to establishment of "Integrated Industrial Infrastructure Facilities" popularly known as Machine Tool Parks with a basic objective of making the machine tool sector more competitive by providing an ecosystem for production.

Establishment of Machine Tool Parks will cut down logistic cost substantially and would be a step forward in making the sector cost effective, having enhanced export capability and favourable for attracting more investment.