The next five years are critical for India to lead the shift toward smart manufacturing, and to enable this transition, there’s a need to build a future-ready workforce, said Debashree Mukherjee, secretary at Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship (MSDE) on Monday.
She said that the government is are creating the skilled talent that industry needs through a raft of schemes, including PM SETU programme, which has a Rs 60,000-crore commitment over the next five years to establish an industry-led, industry-owned skilling architecture through the hub-and-spoke model, upgraded ITI clusters, centres of excellence (CoEs), and an expanded apprenticeship ecosystem.
What did Debashree Mukherjee say?
“Through hyperlocal (district-level) planning and AI-driven skill mapping, we aim to ensure that every enterprise can access the right people at the right time,” she said at the CII Smart Manufacturing Summit 2025.
Mukherjee also pointed out the role that the MSMEs have to improve India’s competitiveness in advanced manufacturing. “As the servicification of manufacturing, where products are integrated with advanced services and digital technologies, India’s strong IT capabilities offer a natural and strategic advantage,” she said.
What did Neeraj Huddar say?
Neeraj Huddar, resident fellow at NITI Aayog emphasised the need to accelerate advanced manufacturing. He said the vision of Viksit Bharat targets manufacturing contributing 25% of GDP by 2047, however, under a business-as-usual scenario, India would fall short by Rs 5.1 lakh crore. “Bridging this gap will require transformative interventions anchored in advanced manufacturing, with focused action across five key clusters – engineering, consumer products, life sciences, electronics, and chemicals – where frontier technologies can drive higher value addition, productivity, and global competitiveness,” he said.
Highlighting the importance of skill development as a major theme in India’s manufacturing competitiveness, Ravi Raghavan, managing director & CEO of Bharat Fritz Werner said that Industry 4.0 is not limited to large enterprises. “Mid-sized companies can often see faster impact with small, scalable digital steps. True transformation occurs when technology works alongside skilled people. As factories become smarter, human capability becomes even more critical, making skill development a central pillar of India’s manufacturing competitiveness,” he said.
Dilip Sawhney, managing director of Rockwell Automation India noted that technologies such as 3D printing, smart sensors, RFID, blockchain, and GenAI are transforming design, production, quality, and safety across sectors, accelerating India’s journey toward smarter and more competitive manufacturing.