Can the strategy of regional resource-based manufacturing help in promoting employment in India?

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Ghissu Editorial · Accepted Answer

Regional resource-based manufacturing can largely promote employment when built on labour-intensive agro, forest and craft clusters, but only partly when it relies on capital-intensive mining and metals. Kerala's coir and cashew units and UP's One District One Product scheme show the job potential.

**Introduction**

Regional resource-based manufacturing processes a region's own farm, forest, marine or mineral resources near their source, as Tiruppur does with cotton. It is often proposed to create jobs where people already live.

**How Resource-Based Manufacturing Creates Jobs**

SKETCH: spectrum | Job Intensity of Resource Industries
left: Labour-intensive
right: Capital-intensive
- Handicrafts, coir
- Food processing
- Textiles, leather
- Cement
- Steel, aluminium

1. **Local value addition**: Kerala's coir units built on local coconut husk and Assam's tea factories beside the gardens employ large numbers of workers near home.
2. **Farm and forest linkages**: Food processing absorbs surplus farm labour, and TRIFED's Van Dhan Vikas Kendras (2018) help tribal gatherers process forest produce.
3. **Cluster policy**: UP's One District One Product scheme (2018) and the 2017 Indian Forest Act amendment freeing bamboo grown outside forests from felling and transit permits widened local manufacturing.

**Limits to Its Employment Potential**

1. **Capital-intensive minerals**: Odisha and Jharkhand host big steel and aluminium plants, yet many mining districts remain poor, a resource curse.
2. **Displacement**: The abandoned POSCO project in Odisha (2017) and the closure of Sterlite's Thoothukudi smelter (2018) show the cost of conflict.
3. **Weak infrastructure and skills**: Poor power, credit and training mean raw material still leaves unprocessed.
4. **Market limits**: Small units struggle with quality, branding and finance, and stay exposed to global commodity price swings.

**Conclusion**

The strategy can largely promote employment when built on labour-intensive agro, forest and craft clusters linked to markets, credit and skills, and only partly when it relies on capital-intensive mining. With fair benefit sharing, it can make job creation broad-based and regionally balanced, in line with Atmanirbhar Bharat.

Can the strategy of regional resource-based manufacturing help in promoting employment in India?

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