Niti Aayog unveils “Reimagining Manufacturing: India’s Roadmap to Global Leadership in Advanced Manufacturing”

The Government think-tank Niti Aayog’s Frontier Tech Hub has unveiled a roadmap titled “Reimagining Manufacturing: India’s Roadmap to Global Leadership in Advanced Manufacturing”. It has been developed by Niti Aayog’s Frontier Tech Hub, in collaboration with CII and Deloitte, with guidance from an expert council of industry leaders.

The roadmap was unveiled by Devendra Fadnavis, the chief minister of Maharashtra; Ajit Pawar, the deputy chief minister of Maharashtra; BVR Subrahmanyam, the CEO of Niti Aayog; and Debjani Ghosh, a distinguished fellow at Niti Aayog, among others.

“If India has to achieve exponential growth, it cannot come from business-as-usual. Frontier Tech is the marriage of science and technology, and when this union enters manufacturing, it drives automation, efficiency, and global competitiveness. Maharashtra will be the first State to fully align with the National Mission on Manufacturing and become the global hub for advanced manufacturing,” said Fadnavis.

The roadmap outlines a sector-focused approach to harness frontier technologies and boost India’s manufacturing competitiveness. It identifies artificial intelligence and machine learning, advanced materials, digital twins, and robotics as high-impact enablers and explores their implications across 13 priority manufacturing sectors. With targeted measures, the roadmap envisions manufacturing contributing over 25% to India’s GDP, generating more than 100 million jobs, and establishing India as one of the top three global hubs for advanced manufacturing by 2035—key milestones towards Viksit Bharat @ 2047.

According to Subrahmanyam, India’s economic ascent hinges inextricably on the strength of its manufacturing sector, but incremental change will not suffice. “This roadmap sets a decisive, time-bound course to become an Advanced Manufacturing Powerhouse by 2035; integrating frontier technologies to build precision, resilience, and sustainability into our manufacturing DNA, creating a globally competitive ‘Made in India’ identity,” he said.

To address existing obstacles that constrain India’s manufacturing competitiveness, it advocates for a coordinated initiative to enhance R&D ecosystems, industrial infrastructure, workforce development, and the extensive deployment of frontier technologies in sector-specific manners, via a ten-year strategic roadmap that delineates comprehensive interventions.

The roadmap cautions that India risks missing a historic opportunity if it neglects to adopt critical frontier technologies in profitable sectors, potentially forfeiting $270 billion by 2035 and $1 trillion by 2047 in additional manufacturing gross domestic product (GDP).

“Frontier technologies must modernise the very backbone of our economy—manufacturing. The window to act is narrow, and transformation demands reimagining the entire ecosystem. By embedding technology into our industrial DNA, we can lift manufacturing’s GDP share to 25% by 2035, generate millions of high-quality jobs, and ensure our factories become symbols of innovation and national strength,” said Debjani Ghosh.