What has ‘Make in India’ achieved in the last decade : Data

Make in India policy aims to boost manufacturing sector GDP share and create industrial jobs, but outcomes show stagnation and decline.

On September 25, 2014, the newly elected Union government initiated the Make in India (MI) policy with two objectives: (i) to raise the manufacturing sector’s share in GDP to 25% (from 14%-15%), and (ii) to create 100 million additional industrial jobs (from about 60 million) by 2025. The policy was similar to the New Manufacturing Policy 2012, formulated but not implemented. The policy context: though India’s annual real (net of inflation) GDP growth rate had accelerated to 7%-8% during the previous decade with rising export share, especially during 2003-08, manufacturing sector performance was modest, with increasing net imports and modest employment expansion.

Ten years on, what are the policy outcomes? According to the National Accounts Statistics (NAS), the manufacturing real gross value added (GVA) growth rate has slowed down from 8.1 during 2001-12 to 5.5% during 2012-23 (Chart 1). 

Chart 1 | Manufacturing sector GVA growth rate at constant prices

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The sector’s GDP share has stagnated at 15%-17% over the last three decades, though it is slightly higher in the latest GDP series due to methodological changes (Chart 2).

Chart 2 | The chart shows the manufacturing (MFG) sector’s share in GDP at constant prices (1991-2023)

As per the NSSO sample surveys, manufacturing employment has declined from 12.6% in 2011-12 to 11.4% in 2022-23. Unorganised or informal sector manufacturing accounts for most employment, declining by 8.2 million, from 38.8 million in 2015-16 to 30.6 million by 2022-23, as per surveys of unincorporated sector enterprises. Agriculture’s share in the workforce increased from 42.5% in 2018-19 to 45.8% in 2022-23 (Chart 3).