India maps industrial park route to turn factory giant

Plan for mega parks providing designated space to firms follows China model

- Jessica Jani & Mihir Mishra

India is finally going the industrial park way to streamline the country's manufacturing ecosystem, bearing in mind neighbour China's phenomenal success through this approach.

The Centre is working on a plan to build more than 20 dedicated, mega industrial parks across the country by 2030, two officials aware of the matter said. The objective is to make India the third-largest contributor to global manufacturing from fifth currently. The ministries of pharmaceuticals, textiles, petroleum and natural gas, and commerce are involved in these discussions.

The plan is to build five chemical and petrochemical manufacturing hubs, seven textile parks, five leather and footwear parks, four medical devices parks, and three bulk drugs parks, providing designated space to companies in the sector, the officials cited above said on the condition of anonymity.

"The idea is to designate areas where it is easier to provide facilities for companies," the first official said, adding that there has been criticism that India's manufacturing development "has been sporadic and not planned, unlike China, where it has been planned through several parks".

These parks will be a mix of both greenfield and brownfield projects, with most of them designed and implemented afresh and some existing parks upgraded.