Aatmanirbhar Bharat: 'India needs to move beyond exporting raw materials'

Union minister Piyush Goyal has said that India needs to move beyond exporting raw materials and improve its manufacturing capabilities to supply high-quality products to the world.

He said that 'Aatmanirbhar Bharat' effectively is all about building Indian capabilities, quality, scale, implementing good manufacturing practices, bringing best of technologies along with improving the standards that Indians expect in India.

Goyal said in a video posted on his Twitter handle that India will have to identify areas in which it can excel and become a major global supplier.

"We will have to identify areas where sensible policies can help us get there. As the Prime Minister said on August 15, look at areas where we need to create value...where we can go beyond exporting raw materials," the minister said.

Elucidating his stress on exporting more of finished products compared to raw materials he said that China's production of steel is way higher than India and it imports iron ore from India, although it has its own reserves.

"India at 100 million tonnes of steel, China at 800 million tonnes of steel and even then I think we are the second largest manufacturer. Look at the gap and we are exporting iron ore to China," he said.

"I am told China has iron ore but they are conserving it. Can we think of some smart options?"

He also said India can provide a "true partnership" to the world in terms of supplies and make the global supply chain more resilient and foolproof.