India's manufacturing need not stop at the coastline
Mint - Opinion · Published 8 November 2026 · Last updated
India must deliberately expand manufacturing hubs beyond the coastal belt to achieve balanced growth and meet its 25% GVA target.
Key points
- Five states—Maharashtra, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh—account for over 54% of manufacturing GVA and 53% of industrial establishments according to the ASI 2024‑25.
- Fixed capital in Indian industry grew 10.54%, GVA 9.59%, while employment rose only 7.19%, indicating a capital‑intensive shift.
- The Annual Survey of Industries records only registered factories (≥10 workers with power or ≥20 without), omitting the large informal sector.
- Census 2011 shows Uttar Pradesh and Bihar supplied ~37% of interstate migrants, while Maharashtra alone attracted 7.9 lakh of the 4.14 crore work migrants.
- NITI Aayog estimates India’s share of global manufacturing value rose from 1.5% (1995) to 3.2% (2023), far behind China’s rise to ≈32%.
- Manufacturing’s contribution to Indian GVA has lingered at 16‑18% for two decades, short of the 25% target set in policy documents.
- The author proposes regional weighting of the PLI scheme, pilot clusters in under‑industrialised states, and skill‑training aligned to anchor industries.
- Live indicator shows IIP growth at 6.7% as of 30 Sept 2026, reflecting overall industrial expansion.
Background
- Ahead of the Union Budget, policymakers are urged to address the structural flaw of manufacturing concentration in a few coastal states.
- Since the early 2000s, successive budgets have offered incentives for production, logistics and infrastructure, yet the geographic spread of factories has barely changed.
- The Production‑Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme, launched in 2020, has so far boosted select sectors mainly in the five dominant states.
- China’s inland industrialisation—Chongqing, Chengdu, Zhengzhou—demonstrates that large‑scale manufacturing can thrive far from ports.
UPSC relevance, Prelims facts and Mains angle for this issue are in the full SWAदेSH note.
Original report: Mint - Opinion