‘Make in India’, ‘Be in India’ or ‘Should have been in India’ statements are echoing as German manufacturers advocate 'hang on in India' and Indian exporters find much easier acceptance of their quality and products across European markets. During the recent Bauma in Munich, ASAPP Info Global Group (the publishers of CONSTRUCTION WORLD magazine) exhibited and spoke to several international and Indian manufacturers. India's infrastructure spend is making waves across the globe and even the construction equipment (CE) industry has raced from a $ 3.5 billion industry in 2014 to a $ 9.5 billion industry in the past ten years. Yes, it is a dichotomy of sorts where on one hand, we have a high surge of investments and mega-scale projects announced and delivered, and on the other we have announcements of strikes by contractors for non-payment in states like Karnataka and Maharashtra. It appears that welfare funds for vote appeasement have taken precedence over committed payments.

However, our manufacturing has surely received a validation of sorts in terms of perception with the huge haul of 600 tonne of iPhone exports that India managed to pull off before the US tariff deadline. According to reports, Apple plans to shift all its manufacturing of iPhones for the US market to India. 

Apple exports have been crucial to our manufacturing story. But there are other gems in India too. “Wipro Hydraulics figures among the global top three,” informed Sitaram Ganeshan, the company’s president. The company stands as one of the world’s largest independent hydraulic cylinder manufacturers, delivering over 1 million cylinders to OEMs globally. 

In April 2025, India's Manufacturing PMI reached 58.2, marking a 10-month high. April's GST collection reached a record Rs 2.37 trillion, a 12.6% year-on-year increase. The positive trend has continued seen from January 2025 earlier in the year, with March collections amounting to Rs 1.96 trillion, a 9.9% increase over the previous year, February GST revenues at Rs 1.83 trillion grew by 9.1% year-on-year while January also recorded Rs 1.96 trillion, reflecting a 12.3% increase.

The CE industry now is comfortably exporting products to Europe and the US and there are no red flags or concerns regarding our quality. The volatility in global trade will make it vital for India to escalate the shift in quality such that it is more permanent than ever.

There are concerns as to whether government spending will be muted given that our GDP is forecasted to grow at 6.3 per cent against an earlier forecast of 6.5 per cent. For his part, speaking in Washington DC, the RBI Governor maintained the 6.5 per cent figure. And states like Maharashtra are targeting a 7.3 per cent growth. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has committed to making it a trillion-dollar economy by 2030. Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan are planning to borrow well to keep their growth engines chugging.