I sometimes feel that we have become a little too focused on counting factories. Every major investment announcement generates excitement, part of the same momentum behind how FTAs are becoming strategic growth platforms for India. New land is allocated. Groundbreaking ceremonies take place. Investment figures make headlines. All of that matters.
But manufacturing strength is rarely built by a factory alone.
If a large electronics company sets up a plant tomorrow, what happens next? Where do its suppliers come from? Who trains the workforce? Which local businesses grow alongside it? Which engineering colleges adapt their curriculum to support the industry, and how will the recent 2025 Labour Codes reshape hiring and workforce readiness? These questions determine whether an investment creates lasting value or remains an isolated success story.
That is why I believe the next phase of Make in India needs a different lens.
The World’s Best Manufacturing Regions Teach an Important Lesson
When people talk about Shenzhen, they often focus on its scale. What fascinates me is something else.
A manufacturer there can solve a production challenge in days because suppliers, designers, engineers, logistics providers, and technology companies operate within the same ecosystem, a reminder of the broader shift from globalisation to geo-economics now underway. Knowledge moves quickly. Problems get solved quickly. Innovation reaches the shop floor quickly.
That advantage did not emerge because somebody built an industrial park. It emerged because thousands of businesses, institutions, and people became connected over time. The lesson for India is clear. Industrial infrastructure is necessary. Industrial relationships are what create enduring competitiveness. This is also central to the question of whether India can become the world’s supply chain alternative to China.
India Is Closer Than We Think
Sometimes our public conversation understates how much progress has already been made.
Consider electronics manufacturing. Ten years ago, very few people imagined India would become a significant exporter of smartphones. Yet mobile phone exports crossed ₹2 lakh crore in FY 2025-26. The story is not just about assembly lines. It is about suppliers, logistics networks, component manufacturers, and talent pools gradually taking shape around them, much like the shift I explored in how fragmenting global supply chains are becoming India’s real opportunity.
The same pattern is beginning to emerge in semiconductors, electric vehicles, and renewable energy equipment, where energy diplomacy is becoming one of India’s most important economic levers, and advanced manufacturing, sectors also being reshaped by the dynamics behind the new industrial cold war over critical minerals. The early signs of an ecosystem are visible.
The challenge now is to deepen them.
What Needs More Attention?
If I had to identify one gap, it would be the connection between industry, research, and skills, the same gap that runs through economic security as the fifth pillar of national competitiveness.
India has excellent entrepreneurs. India has capable institutions. India has ambitious young people. Some of this is already visible in the high-precision manufacturing workshops emerging in India’s Tier-2 cities.
Yet these strengths do not always interact as closely as they should. A startup solving a manufacturing problem should find it easier to work with a large manufacturer. A university research project should have a clearer path to commercial application. Skill development programmes should be shaped by what industries actually need rather than what they needed five years ago. These may sound like small issues, but they often determine whether an ecosystem grows or stalls.
From Industrial Parks to Industrial Powerhouses
The first chapter of Make in India was about creating confidence in India’s manufacturing story. That objective has largely been achieved. The next chapter is about creating depth. In my view, the countries that lead manufacturing in the coming decade will not necessarily be those that build the largest industrial parks. They will be the countries that build the strongest industrial ecosystems.
India has the ingredients. The opportunity before us is to connect them more effectively, in the way regions like Bihar, UP, and Odisha are already redefining India’s map of opportunities.
If we succeed, we will not simply produce more goods. We will create networks of innovation, capability, and enterprise that continue generating value long after individual factories are built. That is what makes me optimistic about India’s manufacturing future.
