New Delhi: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a sweeping push to strengthen India’s manufacturing base, capital goods ecosystem, textiles and MSMEs, while scaling up public investment to drive growth and jobs.
She said three dedicated chemical parks will be set up through the challenge route on a cluster-based plug-and-play model, aimed at attracting large investments and cutting project timelines.
Highlighting that strong capital goods capability is a key determinant of productivity and quality, Sitharaman announced the setting up of two high-tech tool rooms by central public sector enterprises as digitally enabled automated service bureaus to locally design, test and manufacture high-precision components at scale and lower cost.
To boost domestic manufacturing of high-value equipment, she proposed a new Construction and Infrastructure Equipment (CIE) enhancement scheme, covering everything from lifts and firefighting equipment to tunnel boring machines for metros and high-altitude roads. A ₹10,000 crore container manufacturing scheme over five years was also announced to create a globally competitive container ecosystem.
For the labour-intensive textile sector, Sitharaman unveiled an integrated programme comprising a National Fibre Scheme, a Textile Expansion and Employment Scheme to modernise clusters, a National Handloom and Handicraft Programme, the Text-Eco initiative for sustainable textiles, and Samarth 2.0 to upgrade textile skilling. She also announced Mega Textile Parks in challenge mode with a focus on technical textiles.
The Finance Minister announced the Mahatma Gandhi Gram Swaraj Initiative to strengthen Khadi, handloom and handicraft through skilling, branding, quality improvement and global market linkages, benefiting weavers, village industries, ODOP clusters and rural youth.
To revive stagnating industrial hubs, she proposed a scheme to rejuvenate 200 legacy industrial clusters through infrastructure and technology upgradation. A dedicated sports goods initiative was also announced to promote manufacturing, research and innovation in equipment design and material sciences.
Calling MSMEs the engine of growth, Sitharaman announced a ₹10,000 crore SME Growth Fund to create future champions and a ₹2,000 crore top-up to the Self-Reliant India Fund. To ease liquidity, she mandated TReDS for CPSE purchases from MSMEs, proposed credit guarantee support for invoice discounting, linking GeM with TReDS, and development of asset-backed securities based on TReDS receivables.
On infrastructure, she said public capital expenditure has risen from ₹2 lakh crore in 2014-15 to ₹11.2 lakh crore in BE 2025-26, and proposed to raise it further to ₹12.2 lakh crore in FY 2026-27, with a focus on Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities as growth centres.
