New Mfg Golden Age For India

New Delhi: In between the cycle of quarterly results and the chase for growth amid dynamic market conditions, India’s industry leaders reinforced their belief in the country as the best-placed nation in the world for future growth.

Even as new-age technologies such as AI, and machine learning remained the buzzword, the good old manufacturing got thumbs up with “a new manufacturing golden age for India” on the horizon that has the potential to transform the country’s economy, as envisaged by Tata Sons Chairman N Chandrasekaran.

Similarly, auto industry stalwart and Maruti Suzuki India Chairman RC Bhargava said there is no other country in the world better placed than India in terms of future growth. “I can’t see any country in the world today which has better prospects for the future than India has,” Bhargava stated at an event.

N Chandrasekaran announced that with global supply chains continuing to shift in India’s favour as the world’s largest businesses strike a new balance between resilience and efficiency, manufac-turing has the potential to transform the economy. In his New Year message to employees of the Tata Group, he termed it “a new manufacturing golden age for India” and said he was looking ahead to 2025 “with a sense of hope and optimism”. Unprecedented bribery charges, farewells, separation, failed union, monumental mergers and rec-ord-breaking IPOs, along with a healthy dose of online happenings in the form of spat and les-sons in customer care, corporate India saw it all in 2024.

The year will be remembered for two mega-mergers - Tata Group merged two airlines under its fold - Air India and Vistara - to form a single, full-service airline and left the sky with just two players. Mukesh Ambani’s Viacom18 and Disney+ Hotstar merged to create one of the largest content-streaming powerhouses in India worth over

Rs70,000 crore.

The year also recorded listings and companies ranging from Bajaj Housing Finance, and Hyundai to Ola Electric coming out with initial public offerings (IPOs). But the biggest news was infrastructure king Gautam Adani and aides being hit with an indictment in a US court in an alleged USD 265 million bribery scheme to win lucrative renewable energy contracts.