In a highly dynamic and evolving global business environment, India needs to develop breakthrough ecosystems that nurture global businesses to achieve a USD 1 trillion manufacturing economy. Diverse stakeholders need to work in lockstep with each other towards a bigger vision, build new business models, develop new skills and adopt contemporary Industry 4.0 practices & digital technologies. Against this backdrop, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) organized the 3rd Visionary Leaders for Manufacturing (VLFM) Summit with the theme “Building Sustainable Global Business Breakthrough Ecosystems” on December 21, 2019, in Mumbai.
Mr Jamshyd N Godrej, Chairman & Managing Director, Godrej & Boyce Mfg. Co. Ltd during the 3rd VLFM Summit 2019 in Mumbai highlighted the Manufacturing sector needs to assume the role of a driver in boosting economic growth in India. He said, “We are a majority service-based economy. However, the Service sector may not be able to sustain economic growth alone for a long period, if not accompanied by the strong manufacturing sector growth. For the manufacturing sector to increase its contribution to 25%, policy interventions are needed”.
He added, “Manufacturing has to take precedence to the economic activities. Manufacturing is a complex system and it has to be supported by the entire ecosystem of technology, modern machines, people, processes etc. Manufacturing is an activity which meets the need of consumers. Country like India has to move from traditional farming to more Productivity manufacturing. We need to use manufacturing to boost economic growth and be integrated economically with strong policy”.
He mentioned, “We are still more dependent on importing the technology and know-how, this needs to be changed”. He gave an example of china and said, “ China used the manufacturing very effectively and for last 30-40 years, it moved two generations out of poverty by focusing on labor-intensive manufacturing. Now it has moved to highly intensive technologies”.
For India to move forward, he said, “We have to learn from everyone in the world and has to be integrated and lead in the Asia region”. He concluded that “We are all committed to manufacturing and work towards achieving the goal. This VLFM program has helped the companies to understand it better and deeper. We need to disseminate this concept and idea to many companies especially in our own supply chains”.
Further, Speaking on this occasion, Mr Kengo Akamine, Senior Representative, JICA India said that he is very happy to see the progress of the VLFM Project which is one of the key projects under JICA India. He mentioned,” I am very impressed by the enthusiastic and very active participation in the program, as I had the first-hand experience yesterday in the program.” He further elaborated about JICA and activities in India, especially about the two metro projects in Mumbai which will change the traffic situations in Mumbai in the coming years. He said “India is a valued partner for Japan and also the largest recipient of Japanese ODA. We are very happy to support this program and also look forward to how we can address many larger issues such as air pollutions with collaboration with academia and industry.”
Dr K P Karunakaran, Institute Chair Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, IIT Bombay highlighted the technological breakthroughs in the manufacturing sector. But he mentioned that “As some new technologies come, we have our inertia to accept and take advantage of new technologies such as additive manufacturing.” He gave examples of natural processes and creation to make a point that additive manufacturing is in a way taking us more towards the natural way of manufacturing. He said,” manufacturing by 3D Printing is much closer to natural process as nature is also a creation by addition.”
Mr K Nandakumar, Chairman & Managing Director, Chemtrols Industries Pvt Ltd thanked Mr Jamshyd N Godrej for his visionary leadership and commitment for the VLFM Program and requested for his leadership and support for the new project. He also thanked Indian Government and Japanese government especially JICA for continuously supporting this initiative. He also thanked all the participants for association to the program and said, “Lead and drive our manufacturing by your visionary leadership like Mr Mark suleman of pacific telegraph who envisioned future of telephone in 1953, which we are experiencing today”.
The national “Visionary Leaders for Manufacturing” project has over the past thirteen years been able to build an ecosystem and leadership skills that helped senior leaders steer their companies to a new growth curve. The Summit was a platform to outline how the foundation built by this National Project can be harnessed towards this objective and the role that the leaders skilled under the various VLFM programs can play. At this highly successful 3rd VLFM Summit, Industry thought leaders shared their vision and their journeys of building ecosystems to nurture global businesses and inspire business leaders towards achieving that vision. Many VLFM alumni and other stakeholders deliberated upon and bring forth significant elements that could help India build many more such ecosystems and propelling India into a manufacturing-led economy. More than 150 senior leaders from academia, industry, large corporates, MSMEs from the manufacturing fraternity converged in this summit to learn and share the latest in Indian Manufacturing.
