National Manufacturing Competitiveness Council Reconstituted

The government today announced a reconstituted National Manufacturing Competitiveness Council (NMCC) under the chairmanship of Dr V Krishnamurthy.

The reconstituted NMCC has Tata Group head Ratan Tata and TVS Motor CMD Venu Srinivasan among industry captains as members.

Government members of the council include member (industry) of the Planning Commission, secretary to the department of industrial policy and promotion (DIPP) of the commerce and industry ministry, finance secretary, secretary to the department of heavy industry, secretary to the ministry of MSME and the director-general of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research.

Presidents of apex industry organisations - the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham) - will represent industry in the 28-member body.

Dr Kaushik Basu, chief economic adviser to the ministry of finance and Dr Isher Judge Ahluwalia of the Indian Council for Research in International Economic Relations are the two economists in the reconstituted body.

Besides Ratan Tata and Venu Srinivasan, the NMCC includes S Kumars Group chairman Mukul Kasliwal, Larsen & Toubro CMD A M Naik, ITC CMD Y C Deveshwar, Godrej & Boyce CMD Jamshyd Godrej, Bharat Forge CMD Baba N Kalyani, Wockhardt CMD Dr Habil Khorakiwala, Sona Steerings proprietor Surinder Kapur, Hitech Magnetics proprietor Uma Reddy, Hinduja Automotive executive vice chairman V Sumantran, Bharat Heavy Electrials CMD B P Rao and HCL Infosystems chairman and CEO Ajai Chowdhry.

NMCC was set up by the government as an interdisciplinary body at the highest level to serve as a policy forum for credible and coherent policy initiatives in the manufacturing sector. The council's role is to energise and sustain the growth of manufacturing industries in India and also help in the implementation of strategies.

The government proposes to raise the share of manufacturing in the country's GDP to 25 per cent by 2020 from 15-16 per cent at present.