Forget PLI schemes, India's manufacturing sector needs a Puja-Linked Incentive for Vishwakarma

India has tried production-linked incentives, industrial corridors, startup missions, semiconductor missions.... But one element of industrial policy remains scandalously underutilised: Vishwakarma.

'V-man', whose puja was observed yesterday, is traditionally the divine architect and craftsman, honoured by engineers, mechanics, artisans and factory workers. Machines and tools are duly venerated on his day in his honour.

Yet, India continues to treat him like an ITI graduate when he's clearly more than qualified to be Union minister of manufacturing, heavy industry, MSMEs, semiconductors and AI.


Policy is all very well. But what rational economic framework neglects the literal divine maker? Economists obsess over capital formation, productivity and supply chains. Vishwakarma offers all three, without demanding retro taxation.

If anyone understands tech transfer, here's the guy. Vishwakarma needs bigger pujas, better branding and his own manufacturing PLI: puja-linked incentive. Before the next semiconductor fab is inaugurated, forget ribbon-cutting. Bring flowers, incense and a lathe. The Greeks provide a warning. They had Hephaestus, god of smiths, metalworking and craftsmen.

They allowed him to slip down the cultural rankings. Result? Sovereign-debt crisis, and a Mediterranean economy that not even Chris Nolan will make a movie on.