But while India is one of the biggest players in the services and information technology sector, the same cannot be said of our supply chain and engineering capability.

India's manufacturing exports still amount to less than 10 per cent of gross domestic product, whereas more than one-third of China's GDP comes from manufacturing.

India still doesn't have the most congenial business environment. Bureaucratic hurdles and a tough approvals system for setting up new businesses are not as severe as in the past, but they continue to create bottlenecks.

Land acquisition is a major hindrance to setting up new plants, as the problems of Tata Motors in West Bengal last year demonstrated.

Illiteracy and unskilled labor are disincentives to modern organisations that thrive on high productivity. So, too, are infrastructure problems such as clogged ports and roads, power failures, and water shortages.

In spite of these many challenges, India is slowly but surely making a mark in the global supply chain.

We are still a long way behind China and Japan, but there has been definitive progress.

Here, the challenges and success stories, by sector...

Image: People walk inside the Queen Victoria Memorial in Kolkata. | Photograph: Jayanta Shaw/Reuters

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