India's manufacturing sector is on a strong growth path as global companies are opting for India as the major manufacturing hub to leverage the cost advantages and the growing domestic market that the country offers.

For many years, the Indian economy was considered as a service economy, but a revival in the manufacturing sector has shown the future potential of the country's economy. India's competitive advantage in the manufacturing sector goes beyond the labor advantage. There is a growing demand for skilled professionals in the skill-based industries. India has more welltrained engineers and technicians that it can supply to various industries compared to the other developing economies like China, Thailand and Malaysia. India's inherent strength lies in engineering designs, process innovations and R&D. Besides the labor advantage, India has a huge untapped domestic market and abundant raw materials like iron ore, bauxite, etc., which are the basic inputs for several manufacturing industries.

In the last few years, the Indian economy depended on the service sector for its growth. However, in the recent years with the revival in the economy, India has emerged as one of the most favored destinations of global companies for outsourcing their manufacturing needs. This is likely to create a multi billion-dollar opportunity for Indian companies in the next decade. A majority of the contracts are below the $10 mn mark, this shows that MNCs are just testing the competency of Indian companies on the cost and quality front. This illustrates that there is a lot of potential for Indian companies in the manufacturing sector.

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