For much of the past decade, India’s manufacturing conversation has focused on capacity — how many factories are built, how much investment is committed and how quickly production can be scaled. These are important measures of progress, but they don’t tell us the whole story, where India is moving towards creating a manufacturing ecosphere capable of competing globally and withstanding external disruption. The next phase of Make in India, in my view, will move from capacity creation to capability ownership.
A country is not self-reliant merely because a product is made within its borders. If critical materials, production equipment, process knowledge and troubleshooting expertise still come from elsewhere, it means external dependence has simply moved from the port to the factory floor. Building a complete manufacturing infrastructure must, therefore, be recognised as the central objective of India’s PLI and Industrial strategy that includes domestic suppliers, reliable access to raw materials, stronger logistics and testing infrastructure, a technically capable workforce, and closer collaboration among manufacturers, equipment providers, research institutions and policymakers.
The employment factor matters just as much. India needs productive manufacturing jobs that absorb workers transitioning from agriculture and give young people with skills, career mobility and rising incomes. Organised manufacturing added over a million jobs in FY2023-24, according to the Economic Survey. The challenge now is to ensure that industrial growth produces not just more jobs, but more skilled and productive employment.
The purpose of manufacturing, however, cannot be limited to meeting domestic demand. India must build for exports from the outset as they expose manufacturers to demanding customers, international quality standards and intense cost competition, forcing companies to improve productivity, reliability and delivery. In that sense, exports are not merely rewards for achieving scale, they are the discipline that makes scale competitive. The World Bank has similarly pointed to deeper participation in global value chains as an important key to greater productivity, innovation and trade-linked employment for India.
Solar manufacturing adds an additional strategic dimension. For India, solar energy is not only a climate or electricity-generation opportunity, but also closely connected to energy security and the country’s ability to make independent economic choices. Swapping dependence on imported fossil fuels for dependence on imported clean-energy equipment would leave the underlying strategic vulnerability unresolved.
This matters more because the global solar supply chain remains highly concentrated. China holds around 85% of global solar manufacturing capacity and about 95% of photovoltaic wafer capacity. India’s opportunity extends well beyond its own market – by building competitive capabilities across materials, ingots, wafers, cells, modules, batteries and energy storage, it can become a trusted alternative supplier for countries seeking more diversified clean-energy chains. But scale alone will not secure that position. Indian products must compete on efficiency, quality and cost. PLI and additional Policy support will help establish an industry, with operational excellence to sustain it.
The government has laid the groundwork through the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme for high-efficiency solar modules. The Approved List of Models and Manufacturers for Solar cells and Modules, under ALMM and ALCM regime and the proposed National Manufacturing Mission with its emphasis on technology, will push the Industry to build capabilities that can eventually compete without permanent protection.
The next stage takes Indian manufacturing into advanced engineering, robotics, electronics, semiconductors and advanced materials. They are interconnected fields where progress in one strengthens others. This is why manufacturing must lead to research and development (R&D), rather than stay separated from it. The factory floor should generate the questions that researchers solve as every recurring defect or bottleneck is a starting point for applied research. Industry-academia partnerships will drive this movement and turn research into commercially viable production improvements.
Atmanirbhar Bharat shouldn’t mean manufacturing every product domestically at any cost, nor withdrawing from global trade. It should mean not only having the technological, industrial and financial strength to make independent strategic choices, but also the competitiveness to participate in global markets on merit. In the context of Renewable energy, this is driven by, MNRE’s policies covering PLI, Quality control orders and funding of R & D initiatives
If India succeeds, it will do more than strengthen its own economy and energy security. It can also become a dependable manufacturing and clean-energy partner for the world, contributing to a more diversified supply chain, greater global resilience and shared prosperity.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own, and do not necessarily reflect those held by pv magazine.
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