'Made in India' brand must be built through collective effort of athletes, corporates and youth: NITI Aayog
New Delhi, Aug 25
The government has been focusing on sports goods and equipment manufacturing as a strategic growth driver, with a broader aim of strengthening domestic manufacturing and building a globally recognised 'Made in India' brand, Sanjeet Singh, Senior Advisor, NITI Aayog, said on Tuesday.
"Branding is the essential lifeblood of making things work. But we don't have to wait for branded products to be able to boost our manufacturing in India. Simultaneously, our goal should be the 'Made in India' brand," Singh said.
He stressed that building the 'Made in India' brand cannot be the responsibility of a single individual or organisation. It would require a collective effort involving athletes, sportspersons, young people, corporate houses and platforms such as Sportscom.
Singh said the government has, for more than a decade, treated sports goods and equipment manufacturing as a strategic area for growth. Under the Aatmanirbhar Bharat initiative, NITI Aayog prepared a specific roadmap for the sector, which was subsequently converted into a scheme by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports.
Highlighting the challenges faced by the industry, Singh said detailed studies and interactions with sports goods and equipment manufacturers showed that most of the issues were non-financial in nature.
"Our detailed studies and interactions with the various manufacturing units that are manufacturing sports goods and equipment, and mind you, 90 per cent of them are MSME units, have shown that most of the challenges are essentially coming from non-financial issues relating to regulations and bottlenecks," he said.
Singh emphasised that addressing these regulatory and procedural bottlenecks would be crucial for strengthening the domestic sports manufacturing ecosystem. With the overwhelming majority of manufacturers being MSMEs, improving the ease of doing business for these units could play a key role in expanding India's manufacturing capabilities.
He said the objective should be to simultaneously strengthen manufacturing, develop Indian brands and bring together stakeholders across the sports ecosystem to position India as a competitive global hub for sports goods and equipment.
— IANS
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