Goyal meets officials, industry representatives to discuss ways to boost manufacturing

The Indian government held an inter-ministerial meeting to discuss strategies for boosting domestic manufacturing, reducing imports, and enhancing competitiveness in key sectors.

An inter-ministerial meeting was held with industry associations to discuss ways to boost the country's manufacturing, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said on Friday.

He said that the government is committed to working closely with the industry to expand manufacturing capacities, enhance quality standards and strengthen competitiveness.

A comprehensive meeting with officials from key ministries and leading industry associations was held to strategise on boosting domestic manufacturing, he said in a social media post.

The meeting comes at a time when the government is working with the industry to identify about 100 products -- including those from the auto, chemicals, plastics and petrochemicals sectors -- that are either not produced or manufactured inadequately in India, as part of efforts to boost domestic production.

The exercise is aimed at reducing the import bill of the country, as outflows of foreign exchange are impacting the value of the domestic currency against the US dollar. The Indian rupee, on Friday, closed at 95.73 against the greenback.

The country's imports stood at USD 775 billion in 2025-26 as against USD 721.2 billion in 2023-24. India mainly imports crude oil, gold, silver, machinery, fertiliser, vegetable oil, chemicals, plastic materials, metals, transport equipment, and electronic goods.

The West Asia crisis has led to an increase in input costs for certain sectors like plastics.

India's industrial production growth decelerated to a five-month low of 4.1 per cent in March on account of subdued manufacturing growth and almost flat expansion in the power sector amid the West Asia crisis.

Meanwhile, Goyal also co-chaired a meeting with minister of Ports, Shipping and Waterway Sarbanand Sonwal, on issues related to exporters, importers and port authorities.

''We are committed to ensuring coordinated, time-bound measures to address concerns and create opportunities to make Indian traders more competitive globally,'' he said in a separate post.

Exporters and importers are facing issues in the West Asia region as the US-Iran war is impacting the movement of ships across the Strait of Hormuz.