Need for Indian manufacturers to move up value chain: Amitabh Kant

New Delhi: Indian manufacturers need to move up the value chain and grab a share of the growing market of global luxury items, Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant said today.

"Every global luxury product manufacturer is looking at India and China markets... The sheer strength of India's art, craft, master craftsmen needs to be positioned, branded and put out in the global market," Kant said at the Luxury Symposium 2017 here.

Citing example of 50 plus companies coming to India to manufacture mobile phones, he said, "You have seen Mercedes and BMW doing extremely well in India. The luxury market has also moved up."

Stressing that India is going to see a huge surge in terms of e-commerce, Kant said, "India will see close to about 400 million people getting into the process of e-commerce and the country is going to see 300 per cent growth in the next 4-5 years in terms of e-commerce transaction."

The Niti Aayog CEO gave the example of Tesla that broke the distribution chain and reached out to the consumer directly, adding that in the next five years every single luxury product will go through this route.

"They will reach consumer directly," he added. Kant predicted that physical banking will be dead in India in the next five years.

"With the advent of BHIM application, credit and debit card will be redundant in the next five years," he noted.

Observing that digital technology has the ability to break distribution and retail chain, Kant said digital technology will enable India to do things which Indian failed to do in past.

The Niti Aayog CEO also pointed out that India will see an urbanisation boom. Speaking on the same occasion, Facebook India MD Umang Bedi said, "India is one of the largest markets for Facebook.

We find there are about 35 million people in India who are interested in super luxury products. 21 million of them have either bought or flown on first class or business class."

To a query on demonetisation, Bedi said, "I think demonetisation was a move towards more transparency and digital transaction."