Manufacturing sector will soon contribute 20% share of GDP: Suresh Prabhu

Union Minister of Commerce and Industry Suresh Prabhu on Friday said the contribution of India's manufacturing sector towards the national gross domestic product (GDP) would increase by 20 percent in the coming months.

"The contribution of manufacturing sector to the national GDP will rise as high as 20 percent in the future, he said and added sector-wise work is on. New industries will drive future growth and the government is working with industries to identify what these new sectors are going to be," he said at the inaugural session of the India Economic Summit 2018 here on Friday.

Taking cognizance of India's trade deficit with China, Prabhu said agreements have been signed with China to help reduce.

"A new economic paradigm is being created for New India. States will drive growth in future, districts will facilitate it and the Central Government will give an umbrella cover for this growth," the minister was quoted as saying. 

The Commerce Minister stated that the service sector will continue to be a strong growth driver of the national economy, while the government is working on increasing the productivity of the agriculture sector as well.

While the next wave of growth, Prabhu said, will happen due to a surge in Indian entrepreneurship, he emphasised on the need to work on improving the tax-GDP ratio.

Prabhu also noted that the government will soon announce a new cargo policy.

"We're in the process of setting up a task-force to prepare a road-map for making aircraft in India. Local manufacturing of aircraft will be one of the priorities as we'll be buying a large number of aircraft over a period of time," the minister was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.