Nagpur

A democratic nation like India can serve as a reliable base for global supply chains amid geopolitical shifts and supply chains getting weaponized, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said on Saturday.

Addressing a gathering at the foundation stone laying ceremony of XSIO (Logistics) Advanced Industrial Park in Nagpur, he also said manufacturing is getting reshaped completely because of innovation and automation.

"Advanced manufacturing is becoming the new mantra of this era and manufacturing is getting into the next scale with precision, innovation sustainability, automation. AI based technologies are changing the manufacturing sector in a big way," he said.

Manufacturing sector is very important for India, which has become the fourth biggest economy in the world and is on its way to become the third biggest, the CM added.

In an apparent reference to the Iran crisis and its affect on the vital Strait of Hormuz, Fadnavis said, "When supply chains in the world are shifting in a big way due to geopolitical reasons and supply chains are also getting weaponized, a democratic country like India can stand as a reliable base for the global supply chain in such times."

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This can also facilitate the Viksit Bharat vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he asserted.

"The industrial park whose foundation stone was laid today is a very important example. Because global capital will only go to such places where there will be plug and play facility, wherein supply chains will be created," Fadnavis said.