New Delhi, March 19 -- The decade ending 2023-24 shows an interesting trend of a distinct decline in the contribution of manufacturing to India's overall story of economic growth. While it may not exactly be called 'de-industrialization,' given the high level of sophistication we have reached in terms of the spread and quality of products, a grand shift to services is discernible and may prove quite challenging to reverse.

The theory of economic transformation talks of how countries start off with rudimentary economies that are largely agrarian, and then transition through an industrial revolution before achieving a services orientation. This is the pattern witnessed in several developed countries.

However, in the case of India, we have...