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Resolve coal, mining challenges to revive manufacturing: KPMG

The Modi government should resolve issues around coal and mining sector as quickly as possible if it is serious about reviving the manufacturing sector in the country. That’s what KPMG in India feels. “The long unresolved issues pertaining to coal and mining do not affect this sector alone but have a cascading effect on other sectors and the economy as a whole,” said S V Sukumar, head of operation & supply chain, KPMG in India.

Sukumar said that the short, medium and long-term focus should be on improving road, rail and port infrastructure as the industry is suffering from bottlenecks in these areas for both domestic and overseas movements. Sukumar told FC, “The new government should look at boosting SME segment in manufacturing sector. It should assume greater priority as they are under severe stress for the past few years, and more so, as they employ large number of people.”

KPMG on Wednesday released the 2014 Global Manufacturing Outlook, based on a survey of 460 senior executives conducted by Forbes on behalf of KPMG International in early 2014. Respondents represented six industries: aerospace and defence, automotive, conglomerates, consumer products, engineering and industrial products, and metals. Fifty per cent of respondents held C-level positions and a third represented firms with more than $5 billion in annual revenue.

“Innovation is becoming a key success driver worldwide and India will be no different. Innovation is likely to move from traditional product innovations to other sphere of management like “cost optimisation, feature addition. Partnership value programme, which aims at generating innovative ideas in collaboration with the suppliers and business partners for cost compression and quality enhancement, will gather momentum in the coming years”, he said.

Richard Rekhy, CEO, KPMG in India, said that in Indian firms are keenly focused on collaborating with supply chain and logistics providers to improve reliability, enhance capacity and reduce costs by identifying and maximising process and business innovation.

Source: Financial Chronicle