Anand Sharma, Union Minister of Commerce and Industry has said that the groundwork on the National Manufacturing Policy (NMP) will soon begin in August this year.

He was speaking at the first meeting of the revamped National Manufacturing Competitiveness Council. The first meeting was attended industry leaders including Ratan Tata, Chairman, Tata Group, Venu Srinivasan, Chairman and Managing Director(CMD), TVS Motor, Mukul Kasliwal, Chairman, S Kumars as well as several ecretaries from the government of India.

Sharma also said that land acquisition is within the regulation of state and a land bank for the policy is almost ready. The council has been formed to as an interdisciplinary policy forum to allow innovative and efficient policy.

"The policy as such is notified. There are some other department's notifications that have to be aligned with the cabinet decision that is happening. I am sure by the end of March," he said.

The members said that there should be a growth of 12 to 14 per cent in the manufacturing sector in the country in order to achieve the target of creating a 100 million jobs in 10 years.