Abstract
The Food Processing sector has great significance in India’s economic growth and development as it establishes a strong linkage between the industry and agriculture sector. It also plays a strategic role by connecting the Indian farmers to the consumers in the domestic as well as global market. This paper makes an effort to study the growth of food processing industries in India and to analyze the achievements of these industries with respect to trade, employment and inflow of foreign direct investment. The study is analytical in nature, based on secondary data collected from various research papers, reports and publications. However, the descriptive statistics like percentage, table, diagram and growth rate etc are used to analyze the data. The study found that the share of Gross Value Added of Food Processing Industries to all India Gross Value Added has been rising continuously from 1.3% in 2013-14 to 2.08% in 2018-19. In 2018-19, the value of the processed food exports of India was worth of US$ 35.30 billion which accounts for 10.69% of its total exports (i.e. US$ 330.07 billion). Further, the inflow Foreign Direct Investment has increased by 468.14% from Rs 198.13 crore in 2000- 01 to Rs 4430.44crore in 2018-19. Similarly, this sector has also increased the generation of employment of people from 15.05 lakh persons in 2007-08 to 19.40 lakh persons in 2017-18. Hence, this sector has impacted positively in increasing employment, making trade surplus and attracting more foreign direct investment. The study recommends that the government should take more vibrant policy measures for the growth and development of this promising sun rise industry in the country.
Keywords: Food Processing Sector, Trade, Employment, Growth of Industries, Indian Economy
