Goyal says quality, scale and global markets must drive India’s factories

Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said on 29 October that India's industry must be built on quality, scale, access to world markets and inclusion if the country is to become a globally recognised manufacturing nation.

He was addressing the fourth National Conference on India's Industrial Transformation, organised by ISID and IDRA.

Four priorities

Goyal named four "differentiators":

• Quality, which he called the most important, repeating the Prime Minister's call for "Zero Defect, Zero Effect".
• Global market access, as free trade agreements open markets and Indian firms compete for share.
• Scale, combining a domestic market of 1.4 billion people with export markets to bring down costs.
• Inclusivity, so that growth reaches more people.

On trade deals

Goyal said India's agreements go beyond tariffs and rules of origin. He described them as partnerships that protect sensitive sectors and also bring in high-technology goods India needs, such as graphics processing units (GPUs), memory chips and medical technology.

On the India–US trade negotiations, he said that when the details are released, people will see that the interests of farmers and other sensitive groups "have not been compromised". The release gives no details of the deal itself.

He added that many developed countries charge high duties on labour-intensive goods and use them as bargaining chips, and that India's agreements cover 38 developed and relatively prosperous countries.

He called for government, industry and academia to work together, and for experienced professionals and young people to work side by side rather than in silos.

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Source: official release by the Ministry of Commerce & Industry, issued through the Press Information Bureau, Government of India (29 OCT 2026 3:55PM by PIB Delhi). Read the full official text: Commerce and Industry Minister Shri Piyush Goyal Calls for Quality, Scale and Global Market Access to Drive India’s Industrial Transformation.