As the Make in India initiative completes 12 years, India’s manufacturing landscape has expanded across electronics, automobiles, pharmaceuticals, steel, railways and defence, with growing domestic capabilities in components, machinery, strategic materials and advanced technologies.
Launched on September 25, 2014, Make in India sought to position India as a global hub for manufacturing, design and innovation by facilitating investment, encouraging innovation and developing world-class infrastructure. Guided by the principle of “Minimum Government, Maximum Governance”, the initiative also focused on modernising processes and policies.
The initiative was subsequently expanded under Make in India 2.0 and now covers 27 sectors, including 15 manufacturing and 12 services sectors.
Manufacturing growth
Manufacturing Gross Value Added (GVA) at constant prices recorded a compound annual growth rate of 10.88 per cent between 2022-23 and 2025-26 under the revised national accounts series.
The manufacturing component of the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) also increased by 7 per cent during April-July 2026 compared with the corresponding period of 2025.
The growth has been accompanied by significant increases in production across key sectors.
Electronics production rose nearly seven-fold from around Rs 1.9 lakh crore in 2014-15 to around Rs 13.11 lakh crore in 2025-26. Mobile phone production increased approximately 33-fold from around Rs 18,000 crore to around Rs 6.27 lakh crore during the same period. India is now the world’s second-largest mobile phone manufacturer by volume. Overall electronics production grew 15.8 per cent in 2025-26 over the previous year.
Vehicle production reached 31.03 million units in 2024-25, around 33 per cent higher than in 2014-15. Compared with 2020-21, passenger and commercial vehicle production increased 65 per cent each in 2024-25, while three-wheelers and two-wheelers grew 71 per cent and 30 per cent, respectively.
India’s pharmaceutical industry ranks third globally by volume and 11th by value. Its annual turnover reached Rs 4,71,898 crore in 2024-25, representing a 9.5 per cent CAGR since 2020-21. Domestic medical device manufacturing increased around 48.2 per cent, from around Rs 28,000 crore in 2019-20 to Rs 41,500 crore in 2024-25.
Crude steel production increased from 81.7 million tonnes in 2014-15 to 170 million tonnes in 2025-26.
Indian Railways manufactured 54,809 coaches during 2014-24, with average annual coach production rising from fewer than 3,300 during 2004-14 to 5,481 during 2014-24. In 2025-26, it produced 1,674 locomotives and 6,677 Linke Hofmann Busch (LHB) coaches.
Indigenous defence production increased from Rs 46,429 crore in 2014-15 to a record Rs 1.78 lakh crore in 2025-26, an increase of around 283 per cent and nearly four times the 2014-15 level.
Expanding domestic capabilities
India’s manufacturing capabilities have increasingly expanded beyond final products to inputs, components, systems and machinery used across industrial value chains.
In pharmaceuticals, the country now manufactures advanced products such as Trastuzumab Emtansine, described in the source as the world’s first biosimilar antibody-drug conjugate for breast cancer, and Docaravimab-Miromavimab, described as the world’s first anti-rabies monoclonal antibody combination. Miqnaf is India’s first developed macrolide antibiotic in three decades for bacterial pneumonia, while Desidustat, a new chemical entity for treating anaemia in kidney patients, reflects capabilities in innovative drug development.
A pilot plant for Nd-Fe-B (Neodymium-Iron-Boron) rare-earth permanent magnets was established at the International Advanced Research Centre for Powder Metallurgy and New Materials (ARCI), Hyderabad, in March 2026. The magnets are used in electric vehicles, renewable energy systems, electronics and advanced manufacturing. The facility will support technology validation, process optimisation, industry collaboration and the scale-up of indigenous innovations.
In space applications, ISRO and SCL developed the VIKRAM3201 and KALPANA3201 microprocessors. VIKRAM3201 is the first fully Make-in-India microprocessor qualified for the harsh conditions of launch vehicles and was fabricated at SCL’s facility. KALPANA3201 was designed to work with open-source software tools and has been tested with flight software.
Solar module manufacturing capacity increased from 2.3 GW in 2014 to 192 GW as of June 2026, while solar-cell capacity rose from 1.2 GW to around 30 GW during the same period.
An indigenous 30 kW drive system combining a motor and inverter was launched in March 2026. It has been designed, fabricated and validated and is ready for commercialisation.
Hindustan Aeronautics Limited opened its third Light Combat Aircraft Tejas Mk1A production assembly line in October 2025, taking annual capacity to 24 aircraft. It also inaugurated a second HTT-40 trainer aircraft production line covering major structures such as fuselages, wings and control surfaces.
In 2025-26, the Rail Wheel Factory produced 2,10,026 wheels, 1,22,000 axles and 1,20,100 wheelsets, representing growth of 4 per cent, 30 per cent and 22 per cent, respectively, over the previous year.
In September 2025, the Nuclear Fuel Complex dispatched its eighth set of steam-generator tubes for upcoming 700 MW Indian nuclear reactors. The tubes were manufactured, tested and inspected domestically.
Capital goods and machinery
Domestic manufacturing capabilities have also expanded in capital goods and heavy engineering equipment. Production across various capital goods sub-sectors and heavy engineering equipment increased from Rs 2,87,233 crore in 2019-20 to Rs 5,69,900 crore in 2024-25, nearly doubling over the period.
Production of earthmoving and mining machinery rose from Rs 31,028 crore to Rs 80,750 crore, an increase of 160.3 per cent. Printing machinery increased from Rs 12,678 crore to Rs 29,716 crore, up 134.4 per cent, while machine tools rose from Rs 6,152 crore to Rs 14,286 crore, an increase of 132.2 per cent.
Plastic-processing machinery production increased from Rs 2,350 crore to Rs 4,827 crore, while heavy electrical engineering equipment rose from Rs 1,79,199 crore to Rs 3,64,706 crore.
Food-processing machinery increased from Rs 7,547 crore to Rs 15,249 crore, textile machinery from Rs 5,355 crore to Rs 10,461 crore, dies, moulds and press tools from Rs 13,682 crore to Rs 18,400 crore, and process plant equipment from Rs 29,250 crore to Rs 31,505 crore.
Reforms and investment
The Make in India reform agenda has combined measures to ease investment and business processes with support for domestic production.
India permits 100 per cent Foreign Direct Investment through the automatic route in most sectors, excluding certain strategic sectors. Cumulative FDI reached USD 843 billion between 2014-15 and 2025-26, an increase of 169 per cent over the preceding 12-year period.
The National Single Window System (NSWS) provides businesses with access to more than 327 Central approvals and 3,452 State approvals across 34 States and Union Territories. As of September 21, 2026, it handled an average of more than 3.06 lakh applications annually and had onboarded over 5.69 lakh business entities.
The India Industrial Land Bank, a GIS-enabled platform, had mapped 4,220 industrial parks covering around 6.98 lakh hectares as of May 2026.
The PM GatiShakti National Master Plan, launched in October 2021, enables coordinated infrastructure planning and execution across Central ministries, departments and States and Union Territories. As of August 11, 2026, its Network Planning Group had evaluated 396 projects worth around Rs 18.66 lakh crore. Of these, 256 had been sanctioned, including 198 under implementation.
Production Linked Incentive (PLI) schemes cover 14 sectors, including electronics, pharmaceuticals, automobiles, solar PV modules, specialty steel and textiles. As of June 2026, the schemes had attracted Rs 2.40 lakh crore in investment, generated more than Rs 22.66 lakh crore in production and sales, supported exports worth over Rs 15.20 lakh crore and created more than 14 lakh jobs.
Startup India, launched in January 2016, aims to promote innovation, support startups and encourage investment. As of September 2026, around 2.54 lakh entities had been recognised as startups under the initiative.
New initiatives
Recent measures have sought to deepen manufacturing in strategic and emerging areas.
The third round of the Production Linked Incentive Scheme for Specialty Steel, launched in November 2025, covers advanced and emerging categories, including super alloys, CRGO steel, stainless steel long and flat products, titanium alloys and coated steels.
The Scheme to Promote Manufacturing of Sintered Rare Earth Permanent Magnets, notified in December 2025, has an allocation of Rs 7,280 crore to establish 6,000 MTPA of integrated manufacturing capacity for sintered NdFeB-type rare-earth permanent magnets.
The Bharat Audyogik Vikas Yojana (BHAVYA), approved in March 2026, has an allocation of Rs 33,660 crore to develop 100 investment-ready industrial parks with integrated infrastructure.
The Mobile Phone Manufacturing Scheme, approved in July 2026, has an allocation of Rs 62,500 crore for 2026-27 to 2030-31 to scale up mobile phone production, deepen domestic value addition, strengthen supply-chain resilience and enhance global competitiveness.
Semicon 2.0, approved in July 2026, has an allocation of Rs 1,27,500 crore to provide long-term support to India’s semiconductor ecosystem, covering design, manufacturing, advanced packaging, materials, equipment, research and talent development.
The Bharat Audyogik Vikas Yojana Rasayan (BHAVYA Rasayan), approved on July 24, 2026, has an allocation of Rs 3,030 crore for establishing three dedicated chemical parks in India.
As Make in India completes 12 years, the initiative has expanded from increasing production to strengthening the technology, skills, components, infrastructure and industrial capacity required for manufacturing in India and competing in global markets.
