The future of Indian industry: an exercise in scenario building

Abstract

The vision of making India an international industrial hub requires an assessment of the critical issues faced by the industrial sector and hence the development of strategies to face future business scenarios. This study finds that the demand for superior quality, lack of infrastructure, rising labour cost and indifferent government policies are the current challenges for the manufacturing sector, and factors such as better technology, access to global markets, global competition and increased foreign partnership characterise the future business environment. On the other hand, the services sector faces challenges in the form of lack of skilled employees and restrictive government regulations, whereas domain-level consolidation, increased competition from domestic companies and diversification of services come as future characteristics. Technology upgradation, investment in R&D, foreign collaborations, quality standards, and focus on employee skill development and quality norms have emerged as the significant strategies to enhance global competitiveness.