The campaign began on September 25, 2014, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi arguing that manufacturers needed a broader environment for development and growth, not only incentives. The indicators reviewed over the following 12 years show a mixed record: manufacturing has outgrown the wider economy in five of the 12 years under the older data series. Under a newer series, it grew faster in each of the three available years from 2023-24 to 2025-26, although the gap has narrowed.
Industrial production offers a less favourable comparison. Manufacturing outpaced the overall Index of Industrial Production in only three of 12 years under the earlier series. In the newer series it matched the index in 2023-24 and grew more slowly in the next two years. Estimates of manufacturing’s share of gross value added also depend on the series used: the newer data puts it at 15.6% in 2025-26, up from 14.6% in 2022-23, while the older series places its share below the level recorded when the campaign began.
Exports have risen in value, but India’s share of global merchandise exports was about 1.7% in 2013 and remained around that level in 2025-26, according to UNCTAD data cited in the analysis. Non-petroleum goods exports reached $388.3 billion in 2025-26, 53% above the $253.5 billion recorded in 2014-15. Private-sector fixed investment, meanwhile, has fallen as a share of GDP in the latest years covered by both data series.
The government’s production-linked incentive schemes have generated more visible results. Fourteen programmes launched in 2020 and 2021 had drawn a cumulative 2.4 trillion rupees in investment by March 2026. Yet five sectors — solar modules, pharmaceuticals, automobiles and components, specialty steel and large-scale electronics — accounted for nearly 83% of that total. Five industries also accounted for more than 86% of the 850,000 jobs reported under the schemes.
Employment across manufacturing rose from 51 million people in 2016-17 to 53 million in 2025-26, according to data from the labour ministry compiled by CMIE, while the sector’s share of total employment remained broadly unchanged. The figures point to a central question for the programme’s next phase: whether concentrated incentives can translate into sustained output, wider private investment and a larger manufacturing workforce.