While India has demonstrated pockets of excellence in manufacturing—pharmaceuticals, automotive components, and select capital goods, amongst others—the broader truth is harder to ignore. The capacity to scale with precision, consistency, and global quality at low unit economics across industrial sectors has not been India’s defining strength. This is not a dismissal of what has been achieved, but a sober recognition of what it takes to lead in the emerging manufacturing order.India must confront a fundamental question: What does it truly want to be good at in the global manufacturing landscape? Once that question is answered, the policy focus must shift from horizontal incentives to vertical depth. Much of India’s recent industrial activity has been driven by fiscal incentives and FDI flows, resulting in scale without sovereignty. What the country now needs is depth—depth in design, materials, component ecosystems, and systems engineering.
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