The draft paper on ‘National Strategy of Manufacturing’ prepared by the National Manufacturing Competitiveness Council (NMCC) has given top priority for investing in innovations.

NMCC has called for an overhaul of existing policies relating to R&D funding and wanted announcement of incentives for supporting generic technologies. Creation of common testing facilities and centres of manufacturing technology excellence was another suggestion made by the council. The report also calls for the establishment of technology parks on the lines of those existing in the US.

The report said that investing in innovations is one of the pre-requisites to attain global competitiveness. The experience of the industry suggests that low technology fails to attract global investors. R&D investments to adopt technology by the corporate sector and the government should be encouraged.

The NMCC report calls for the creation of a 'Global Technology Acquisition Fund' to enable Indian industry to acquire very high technology intensive companies abroad, whenever such opportunities arise.

In critical areas, in addition to tax relief measures on R&D expenditure, enhanced government funding of research and development activities becomes crucial to support the efforts of the manufacturing sector, especially if innovation and R&D is to form the basis of building comparative advantage. This would call for sector wise study of technology status and building a future model for R&D support by the government, especially in the areas of emerging technologies which have the potential to transform products, processes and services. Attention is required to be paid to incentivisation of R&D in national R&D laboratories and provide greater market orientation to government funded R&D. The merger or consolidation of national technology institution in similar areas of work also requires consideration in order to derive synergy and economies of scale. NMCC noted.

The report also gives due importance to the development of small and tiny industrial sector. It wanted small scale sector to be breeding grounds for innovation and technology development where they become the technology sources for larger companies. It is necessary to provide incentives for technological development in SMEs to enhance their competitiveness.

The draft report has been released for public comments.

NMCC is an inter-disciplinary and autonomous body at the highest level to serve as a policy forum for credible and coherent policy initiatives. The main objective of NMCC is to provide a continuing forum for policy dialogue and to energise and sustain the growth of manufacturing industries. The NMCC is expected to suggest various ways and means for enhancing the competitiveness of manufacturing sector including identification of manufacturing sectors which have potential for global competitiveness; current strengths and constraints of identified sectors, and recommend national level industry/ sector specific policy initiatives as may be required for augmenting the growth of manufacturing sector. The council will also help in the implementation of the strategy.

In order to achieve these objectives, the NMCC is pursuing a two-pronged approach, first to prepare a 'National Manufacturing Strategy Paper' to identify the areas of policy that are to be addressed and the second, to proceed with detailed study and make recommendations in respect of sub-sectors of manufacturing that are assessed to have immediate potential for growth and employment.