"IMTEX 2023 IS POISED TO BOOST TO THE INDUSTRY AT LARGE BESIDES ADVANCING BUSINESS"

Ravi Raghavan, President, IMTMA, in an interview with The Machinist talks about India's machine tool sector, the role of IMTMA in the sector's development and more. Excerpts...

- Anvita Pillai

How important is the role of the machine tools sector for India's development? Further, how can the machine tools sector enable India to become Aatmanirbhar?

Manufacturing and capital goods sectors are key to the economic growth and prosperity of any country. Any increase in the share of manufacturing in GDP can only happen when the machine tool industry is robust considering the sector has been the backbone of manufacturing in all developed nations. The Indian machine tool industry needs to have a strong foundation through continuous R&D, delivering new technologies, processes and products catering to the needs of various industrial segments. As this happens, the contribution of manufacturing to GDP, which is around 14-15 per cent currently can improve by several notches. The capital goods industry and machine tool industry grow faster by about 2 per cent points over GDP growth.

As mentioned above R&D, innovation and indigenisation are leading to localising imports and going further garnering export markets is the path adopted by the Indian machine tool industries.