Goyal calls for need to make India self-reliant in capital goods sector

New Delhi: Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal on Tuesday underscored the need to make India self-reliant in the capital goods sector, saying areas such as container manufacturing can significantly support the country’s export and import trade.

Addressing a post-Budget webinar on manufacturing, industrial upgrade and strategic sectors, he said there is a need to promote capital goods segment “very” rapidly as it can unlock nearly Rs 2.5 lakh crore of CPSEs inventory.

He said these are some of the major suggestions being made during the deliberations in three sub-groups.

Some of the interesting key takeaways of these deliberations include the need of talent and supplier confidence for full stack-up in the semiconductor 2.0; and capital equipment, material localisation and specifically skill development for the electronics components sector.

Goyal said Textiles Minister Giriraj Singh spoke a lot about machine manufacturing in India and “it’s high time we recognize the need to become self-sufficient in our requirements of capital goods”.

India’s machine tool imports grew 15 per cent to USD 5.43 billion during April-January 2025-26. During the period, the country’s imports of machinery, electrical and non-electrical increased 14.21 per cent to USD 50.8 billion.

The other suggestions include requirement of plug and play infrastructure and predictable clearances to fix the upstream import gaps for chemical parks; rapid promotion of the capital goods sector; for rare earth corridors, integration of mining to manufacturing; and need for demand for the Biopharma Shakti scheme.

He added that the textiles sector needs global scale and there is a need to move from cotton into MMF (man made fibre).

“We must look at digital handloom platforms to promote our handloom and handicraft sector -- I think now we need to move from thought to action, from plans to outcomes and from discussions to action on the ground,” Goyal said, adding things like container manufacturing, close to the ports, can really promote India’s export-import business.

In the Union Budget, the government proposed three new dedicated Chemical Parks; and a scheme to revive 200 legacy industrial clusters.

The minister added that several sector-wise priorities have also emerged with greater clarity.

It includes process streamlining for speedy implementation; academia links skilling to create globally competitive talent; flexible land allocation to unlock investments; sustainability solutions such as addressing textiles water and reuse of that water; and innovative public private partnerships or special purpose vehicle models to harness the strengths of government private sector and state partnerships.