India needs to strengthen manufacturing for achieving $5 trn economy goal: Prabhu

India needs to strengthen its manufacturing capacity and produce quality products that will help the country achieve the USD 5 trillion economy target by 2025, former union minister Suresh Prabhu said on Saturday. He also said that exports are going to be the main driver of economic growth.

"India today is a USD 2.5 trillion economy, and we have set a target of becoming USD 5 trillion by 2025. In this target, 50 per cent will be international trade, of which exports will be a major component," Prabhu -- who is Prime Minister Narendra Modi's sherpa for the G20 summit -- said here while addressing the 23rd edition of Techfest - Asia's Largest Science and Technology Festival.

On road map to achieve USD 5 trillion economy objective, he said "there is a need to strengthen the country's manufacturing and produce quality products".

"Our biggest challenge today is quality. We need to upgrade our manufacturing so that we can compete in international markets," Prabhu said, adding that now the country mainly exports merchandise, services and agri produce.

The former minister said that India also needs to identify the export market requirement and work towards building it.

"Besides manufacturing, we have identified 12 champion sectors in the services industry, which we can export. We also have the potential to export USD 100 billion agricultural produce,” he opined.

Going forward, Prabhu said, the country should look for knowledge-based exports.

"We must leverage our brain capability more. We must come out with technology oriented solutions as a package, customise it according to demand. With this India could become an export hub for technology related solutions," he added.