BREAKING THE SHACKLES

India's manufacturing sector has had a long journey, from building the country's industrial foundations to licence raj to liberalisation. The challenge now is to become globally competitive

Since Independence in 1947, the domestic manufacturing sector has travelled from building the country’s industrial foundation (19501960s) to the licence-permit raj (1965-1980s) and liberalisation in the 1990s to the current phase of striving for global competitiveness. Manufacturing now contributes around 17 per cent to India’s GDP and employs around 20 per cent of the country’s workforce.

After the IT and telecom revolution in the late 1980s came liberalisation in 1991, when then PM P.V. Narasimha Rao and his finance minister Manmohan Singh took several measures to abolish the Licence Raj. Trade was liberalised and extensive reforms taken up in the financial sector.