How's been the year 2015-16 for the Indian machine tools industry in terms of production, consumption as well as exports and imports compared to 2014-15?
The year 2015-16 has been encouraging for India's machine tool industry. Production and consumption have shown promising growth. Production reached about Rs.4,750 crore in 2015-16 as against Rs.4,230 crore in 2014-15. Consumption reached about Rs.10,300 crore in 2015-16 as against about Rs.9200 crore in 2014-15.

IMTMA had envisaged to grow the industry to Rs. 23,000 crore by 2020. How would you review this vision in the context of the 2015-16 numbers?

The series of reforms initiated by the government to give a fillip to the economy and manufacturing, through initiatives such as Make in India and release of the Capital Goods Policy have ushered in positive sentiments. With these reforms, the industry will be able to improvise and add new categories in machine tool building. This will result in capacity enhancements and attract fresh investments. The momentum if sustained will rebuild confidence in the economy. In the next five years we expect that the machine tool industry is likely to reach Rs. 20,000 crore.

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