Industrial revival may require a brand new public sector model

India should shelve the orthodoxy of a minimal state role in manufacturing and use PSUs in pursuit of economic objectives

- RAJRISHI SINGHAL

ented industrial policy. Industrial policy requires a competent, confident, entrepreneurial, and dynamic public sector—one equipped to take risks, experiment, and collaborate with the private sector on ambitious goals yet open to how those goals are achieved."

The operative phrase here is 'mission-oriented industrial policy'. The Indian government's second advance estimates show manufacturing at 14.3% of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2024-25, down perceptibly from 16.3% during 2014-15. This decline encapsulates many of the economy's current problems, including rising unemployment and stagnation in real wages. What aggravates the problem is India's uneven and patchy economic growth—including industrial activity—across states, with some states far over the median level and many far below.