How is the Indian machine tool industry changing with regards to technology upgradation? Do you see the dependence on imports getting reduced in the next 2-3 years?
India's domestic market share has been increasing gradually. It is also heartening to see that exports from India have increased by around five percent as against 2014-15. Various new initiatives by the government as well as the industry such as: (a) Creation of an Advanced Centre of Excellence for R&D and Technology Development with IIT, Madras to strengthen the design and technology capability of the machine tool sector; (b) Creation of a fund under Technology Acquisition Fund Programme to acquire and assimilate specific technologies for achieving global standards; (c) Establishment of a machine tool park for making cost-effective, hi-tech machine tools indigenously; (d) Announcement of Capital Goods Policy that will lead to development of new and more advanced products for better accuracy; and (e) 100 percent FDI in defence, civil aviation, pharmaceuticals, and many other sectors which will aid in bringing cutting edge technology and create room for foreign capital in capital intensive sectors, are expected to bring in further improvements. With this we believe that dependence on imports could reduce in future.

Which industry sectors are fuelling the growth of the machine tools industry in India at present? Will this trend continue in the near future?
Primary sectors fuelling the growth of machine tools industry are automobile and auto components, die & mould, defence, railways, power and gas, electronics, etc. The trend no doubt will continue but simultaneously we are seeing sparks being ignited in sectors such as medical engineering, construction equipment, aerospace, etc.

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