India Inc. is optimistic on the prospects for the growth of the economy in the next 12 months, foresees faster sectoral growth and expects future growth to be driven by export demand. This prognosis is held out by the FICCI-PwC India Manufacturing Barometer 2019: Building Export Competitiveness.

Puneet Dalmia, Chairman, FICCI Manufacturing Committee and MD, Dalmia Bharat Group, said "As Global trade has changed significantly in the last few years with new trade routes based on Global Value Chains (GVCs), we need to provide Indian exporters the opportunity to contribute to align with these global value chains. There are number of sectors where India can be truly global leader. India can globally lead in exports in number of sectors like textiles, automotive, chemicals, leather, metals and many more such areas".

The FICCI-PwC India Manufacturing Barometer survey was carried out from July to October 2018. The profiles of the personnel surveyed included chief executive officers, chief financial officers, chief operating officers and heads of strategy from the Indian manufacturing sector.  The survey respondents represent a mix of companies engaged in exports with varied technology and human capital requirements. Large as well as medium-scale organisations were included in order to gain a balanced viewpoint on manufacturing and the export competitiveness of India's manufacturing sector.

The sample includes companies that contribute approximately 12% to the manufacturing GDP of the country from various sectors, namely, automobiles and auto components, chemicals, electrical machinery, food processing, leather, pharmaceuticals and textiles.