India's Manufacturing Challenge: Winning the Last Mile

For more than a decade, manufacturing has occupied centre stage in India's economic aspirations. Successive governments have launched ambitious initiatives—Make in India, the National Manufacturing Policy, Production Linked Incentive (PLI) schemes, the National Logistics Policy, PM Gati Shakti, labour law reforms and corporate tax reductions for manufacturing. Massive investments have transformed India's highway network, expanded port capacity, accelerated dedicated freight corridors and improved the overall ease of doing business.

These reforms have been driven by a common objective: to build a globally competitive manufacturing sector that creates productive jobs, boosts exports and enables millions of Indians to move from low-productivity agricultural employment into higher-value industrial occupations.

Yet, despite these efforts, manufacturing's contribution to India's Gross Value Added (GVA) has remained broadly stagnant at around 16–17%, well below the long-standing aspiration of increasing its share to 25%. While India's services sector has become globally competitive, manufacturing has yet to emerge as the engine of employment and exports that policymakers had envisaged.

This matters because manufacturing is fundamentally different from many other sectors. It creates large-scale employment, supports technology development, strengthens supply chains and generates export earnings. Equally important, it is the backbone of India's Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), which contribute nearly 36% of manufacturing output, account for around 45% of India's merchandise exports, and provide employment to more than 20 crore people. Strengthening manufacturing is therefore not simply an economic objective—it is central to India's long-term employment and inclusive growth strategy.

Unlike large corporations, however, most MSMEs do not operate from sprawling integrated campuses with captive infrastructure. They depend almost entirely on the quality of the industrial ecosystem around them—roads, electricity, water supply, drainage, waste management, public transport and common facilities. Every deficiency in this ecosystem translates directly into higher operating costs and reduced competitiveness.

Whenever export growth slows or India's manufacturing competitiveness comes under scrutiny, the debate almost invariably centres on the need for "more reforms." Businesses seek further policy changes, economists recommend greater liberalisation and governments announce fresh initiatives.

But perhaps we are asking the wrong question.

India today does not suffer from a shortage of industrial policy. It suffers from a shortage of industrial execution.

This is not to suggest that national reforms have been ineffective. On the contrary, they have laid the foundation for India's next phase of industrial growth. However, the next gains in manufacturing competitiveness are unlikely to come from another policy announcement in New Delhi. They will come from improving the environment in which factories actually operate every single day.

It may be useful to think of manufacturing competitiveness as comprising three distinct layers.

The first is national policy—taxation, trade agreements, labour regulations, industrial incentives and the broader ease of doing business. India has made significant progress on many of these fronts.

The second is strategic infrastructure—national highways, ports, airports, dedicated freight corridors and industrial corridors. Here too, India has witnessed remarkable improvements over the past decade. Freight movement across long distances is significantly faster and more reliable than it was just a few years ago.

The third, however, is the local industrial ecosystem. This includes the internal roads within industrial estates, traffic management, truck parking, drainage, reliable electricity, water supply, common effluent treatment facilities, waste management, digital connectivity, worker mobility and the professional maintenance of industrial areas.

It is this third layer that receives the least attention, yet often has the greatest influence on a manufacturer's day-to-day competitiveness.

Consider logistics. India's logistics costs are estimated at around 13–14% of GDP, compared with approximately 8–9% in many developed manufacturing economies. Considerable progress has already been made through investments in expressways, freight corridors and ports. Increasingly, however, the remaining inefficiencies are not on the highway—they are at the destination.

This brings us to what may be called Last Mile Competitiveness.

Much attention has rightly been paid to improving last-mile connectivity—connecting industrial clusters to highways, ports and freight networks. But connectivity alone does not guarantee competitiveness.

A truck carrying export-bound engineering components may travel 500 kilometres efficiently on a modern expressway, only to spend another 45 minutes negotiating the final two kilometres because of congested internal roads, inadequate carriageway widths, illegal parking, encroachments or poor traffic management within an industrial estate. Those last few kilometres often determine whether deliveries are made on time, inventories remain under control and production schedules remain uninterrupted.

For many manufacturers, particularly MSMEs, these hidden costs are more significant than another marginal reduction in freight tariffs or taxation.

Industrial clusters across the country provide numerous examples.

Take Bhosari and Moshi in the Pimpri-Chinchwad region—among Maharashtra's oldest and most established engineering clusters, supplying the automotive, engineering and export sectors. Despite their industrial importance, these estates have repeatedly faced issues relating to deteriorating internal roads, traffic congestion, inadequate drainage, waterlogging, waste management and delays in developing Common Effluent Treatment Plants (CETPs). Industrial associations have also highlighted concerns regarding local power reliability and ageing electricity distribution infrastructure.

These are not isolated incidents, nor are they unique to Maharashtra. Similar concerns have been reported from industrial clusters in Chakan, Ludhiana, Faridabad, Rajkot, Peenya, Coimbatore and several other manufacturing centres. In fact, the Maharashtra Government itself recently initiated an infrastructure gap assessment for the Chakan industrial belt after industries highlighted deficiencies in roads, utilities and civic infrastructure despite the region's importance as one of India's premier automotive manufacturing hubs.

The underlying issue is not one of intent—it is one of governance.

Responsibility for industrial estates is frequently divided among industrial development corporations, municipal corporations, electricity distribution companies, pollution control authorities, traffic police and planning agencies. Each controls one part of the ecosystem, but no single agency is accountable for the overall performance of the industrial estate.

As a result, world-class factories often operate within decidedly ordinary surroundings.

This is perhaps the least discussed aspect of India's manufacturing competitiveness. Investors do not experience industrial policy through government notifications. They experience it while moving trucks through congested roads, waiting for utility connections, coping with drainage failures, arranging waste disposal or managing production schedules around local power disruptions.

These are not glamorous reforms and they rarely attract headlines. Yet collectively they influence delivery performance, inventory levels, production efficiency, environmental compliance and ultimately investment decisions.

How then should India respond?

One practical step would be to establish a national Industrial Estate Competitiveness Index.

Just as rankings have encouraged improvements in Ease of Doing Business, Smart Cities and Swachh Bharat, a similar benchmarking exercise could transform the management of industrial estates.

Major industrial estates could be evaluated annually on measurable parameters such as internal road quality, truck turnaround time, power reliability, water availability, drainage, waste management, availability of Common Effluent Treatment Plants, digital connectivity, worker mobility, safety, grievance resolution and overall maintenance standards.

Publishing these rankings would create healthy competition among industrial development authorities, encourage accountability and provide investors with an objective assessment of industrial ecosystems across different states. More importantly, it would shift the focus from announcing new policies to improving the quality of implementation.

India has demonstrated that it can build expressways, airports, metro systems and dedicated freight corridors at remarkable speed. The next phase of manufacturing reforms should apply that same determination to the industrial estates where factories actually operate.

The next frontier is not merely last-mile connectivity.

It is Last Mile Competitiveness.

India has already completed much of the first mile of manufacturing reform. The next—and perhaps the most important—phase lies in ensuring that every industrial estate offers manufacturers an operating environment that matches the ambition of the policies that brought them there.

The road to becoming a global manufacturing powerhouse does not end with industrial policy. It begins at the factory gate.

The KYV Rant

 

You may have recently come across the new Know Your Vehicle (KYV) requirement — an additional verification step introduced to ensure your vehicle details correctly match your FASTag record. KYV is now mandatory, and failure to complete it could result in your FASTag being hotlisted, rendering it inactive at toll plazas regardless of your wallet balance.

How a FASTag is issued

FASTags are issued by Authorised Issuers such as banks or NHAI. To obtain one, vehicle owners must submit:

1. Vehicle Registration Certificate (RC) – front and back (mandatory)
2. Owner’s passport-size photograph
3. KYC documents (identity and address proof): Driving Licence, PAN, Passport, Aadhaar, Voter ID, or other valid government ID
4. Duly filled application form
5. For corporate or commercial vehicles: company PAN, authorization letter, board resolution, and GST certificate may also be required

Before issuing a FASTag, the authorized issuer verifies the authenticity and legibility of all documents – confirming vehicle ownership through the RC, identity and address through KYC, and cross-checking the photograph for records.

In essence, every FASTag is tied to one specific registered vehicle. The RC provides all the details needed to classify the vehicle into its appropriate NHAI toll category.

Why the KYV policy was introduced

NHAI identified rising incidents of FASTag misuse, including duplication and violations of the “One Vehicle, One FASTag” rule. Two major fraud patterns emerged:

1. Multiple FASTags being issued for a single vehicle
2. A FASTag issued for one vehicle being used on another

 

The first case offers limited monetary incentive for tag holders beyond minor administrative convenience. Moreover, NHAI already has sufficient data to detect and block duplicate FASTags swiftly.

The second type of fraud, however, is more damaging. A heavy commercial vehicle using a tag meant for a light motor vehicle can underpay substantial toll amounts, leading to significant revenue leakage.

 

Where the real problem lies

The real challenge lies in ensuring that the FASTag scanned at a toll booth actually belongs to the vehicle crossing at that moment. When a vehicle approaches, its FASTag is read and the registration number flashes on the display board—yet the system does not verify if that number matches the physical vehicle before lifting the barrier.

This is the loophole that allows misused or mismatched FASTags to pass through undetected.

 

Why KYV misses the mark

Despite its intent, the KYV process will likely address only the first type of misuse—and even that, inefficiently. It does little to tackle the second, more harmful fraud category.

In effect, the government has chosen to make every vehicle owner undergo a cumbersome, repetitive validation exercise. It’s a classic case of boiling the ocean while missing the main target—unless, of course, one expects fraudsters to voluntarily confess through the KYV process.

 

The Burden on the Wrong Shoulders

The heavy-handed rollout of KYV once again shifts the responsibility away from where it truly lies.
The Authorised Issuers should be accountable for preventing duplicate FASTags,
and the toll booth operators/authorities should ensure that the tag matches the vehicle crossing the lane.

Yet, it is the law-abiding vehicle owner — who already complied with all rules during FASTag issuance — who now bears the burden of revalidation every three years.
All because the system meant to enforce compliance hasn’t done its job effectively.

In Closing

For a country that prides itself on having one of the most competitive bureaucratic selection processes, it’s remarkable how often we end up with well-intentioned but poorly thought-out policies.
KYV seems to be just another example — a solution that inconveniences millions while barely touching the root cause.

 

Punishment as a deterrent...

Very often we are treated to debates about the effectiveness of capital punishment & how research has shown that it's not a deterrence, apart from the moral issues. At another end we have the debate on the high fines imposed by the new traffic regulations.

I am no expert, but I firmly believe that the elephant in the room is getting a free pass all thru. The quantum of punishment is not really the issue, but the 'certainty' is punishment can be a major deterrent.

Take a simple offence like signal jumping. If there were a very high chance that you'll be caught, you will not break the law. That is the single biggest reason Indians behave much better abroad than in India. In India the chance that you'll be caught is so low, that it's always possible to take the risk without fear.

Now what is"high" / "low" is something not easy to define. But if somebody were to study the incidence of an offence, and then check how many offenders were caught & punished, the ratio will probably be lower than 5%. Which I think it's extremely low. If the percentage were to be higher, say in the 50s, then only the more fearless would consider breaking the law, but in the 80s, then IMO only the most fearless would.

Now this is not rocket science, is it?

But we seldom hear this aspect being debated in the mainstream.

In India we have another layer to the above problem - corruption. Even if you do get caught, then you can bribe your way out of it. We have all seen this time and again, even in the most High profile & public cases. But more on that later...

Hope departments like the Ministery for Road Transport is sensitised to these issues

When you look at serious criminal offences, our conviction rates are quite low i hear (how low, compared to say developed countries, i dont know). If we don't increase this, our law & order situation is unlikely to improve.

When the Yogi government took over the Police machinery in UP, and there was an increase in the encounter deaths... we heard of stories of how many gangsters out on bail/ those with pending warrants began to surrender voluntarily. The only trigger for their action was them sensing the high likelihood of them being 'encountered'.

This obviously is not the right way to bring down crime rates, but our weak police simply used the easiest way out.

What the Hyderabad police have done is no different.

We are hugely short on law enforcement capacity.

The shortages are very apparent. Everybody on the police forces is grossly over worked. Competence is another issue. Also a significant section is highly corrupt. Add these factors together & we have a disaster in the making.

With all of the above shortcomings, if we look at the judiciary's performace, then what hope can the common law abiding wo/man have in our country?

It's the market share, stupid!

So if we call the low probability of getting caught add the market share of the Indian state, it has to aim to increase it significantly. Considering the state is a Monopoly & the only player in the market, it shouldn't be so hard.

But what the Indian state lacks is basic market data. Being a Monopoly, it believes the market is only as big as it's own share!! 

Perhaps it's time we get in some 3rd party to do the counting and show the real dimensions of the market! That's when the state can start evaluating the performace of its various arms.

This of course difficult to do. Maybe more difficult for criminal offences, but perhaps easier for others like traffic offences or even tax offences. 

It would need participation of some non governmental organisations to make it effective.

Traffic offences are a good place to start, very easy to measure. Technical evidence based, so very little back & forth required for measuring incidence of offence & conviction.

The Mumbai Metro One - Who to blame?

The Mumbai Metro One, which runs from Ghatkopar to Versova, just about 11km long has always been very popular & sees a daily ridership of about 4.5 Lakhs now. Apparently this line has been the fastest of any metro in India to reach the milestone of 250 million riders in 957 days! (wiki)

Having been constructed in one of Mumbai’s most congested corridors, this is not really a surprise.

However given the line is designed to handle 6 coach rakes, but currently runs only 4 coach rakes, the ridership has significant headroom to grow!

But if you were to visit Ghatkopar or Andheri (the 2 main stations on the line), today, you may feel the metro line is already beyond its capacity. That's because both these stations are built in some of the most congested areas of Mumbai, ie in the neighborhood of the respective suburban railway stations.

The situation is so bad that even when the station is handling just one rake at a time, there is not enough space on the platform to accommodate the passengers boarding & de-boarding. Almost every evening the Ghatkopar station also gets flooded with de-boarding passengers & then the operator resorts to jugaad solutions like switching off the escalators to somehow slow down the flow of passengers. Holding passengers on the platform becomes necessary because the concourse is already packed with passengers from the earlier rake. And all this has to be executed with very good coordination by the staff. I dont have any experience of Andheri station, but the situation is unlikely to be much different.

Infact this issue has now even reached the Railway ministry.

The scenario makes me wonder how were safety certificates issued for these stations in the first place. Note that the line is only working at about 2/3^rd of its planned capacity!

Ideally the authorities should have built much much bigger stations at Andheri & Ghatkopar, but for that they would have had to acquire the neighbouring land. Since land acquisition in India, even for public infrastructure projects is fraught with so much litigation and litigation with delays. My guess is that the powers of the time decided to avoid / minimize the litigation & resultant delays by simply shrinking the stations to fit into the space available.

So who is to blame for the current scenario?

• The developers of the line?
• The neighbourhood dwellers who may not have wanted to part with their land?
• The Judiciary, for not being able to rule on these issues quickly?

Deciphering this is quite critical at this juncture. Especially because Mumbai is embarking on a slew of public infrastructure projects, and there is no dearth of opposition & litigation at every corner. 

Very often, poor planning by the authorities is seen as a key problem for most of our projects faltering. But the constraints under which our planners operate also are real (though all constraints are man made).

Like its said about so many of our projects: Conceived in the 1900s, planned in the 2000s and executed perhaps 10-20 years later. So almost every project is already decades behind on its first day!