It enlists the rules and procedures that will monitor the growth and pattern of industrial activity. The industrial policy is neither fixed nor flexible. It is constructed, modified and further modification is done according to the changing situations, requirements and perspectives of developments.
The major objectives of industrial policy are discussed below.
The industrial policy of the Government of India focuses at increasing the level of industrial development. It explores ways to construct favorable investment environment for the private sector and also for mobilizing resources for the investment in public sector. In this way, the government roots to promote rapid industrial growth in the country.
The industrial policy is crafted to correct the prevailing downgraded industrial structure. Say for example, India had some fairly developed consumer products industries before independence but the capital goods sector was not at all developed, also basic and heavy industries were by and large absent.
Thus, industrial policy had to be enclosed in such a way that imbalances in the industrial structure are corrected by laying stress on heavy industries and development of capital goods sector. Industrial policy explores methods to maintain balance in industrial structure.
The industrial policy explores to facilitate a borderline of rules, regulations and reservation of spheres of activities for the public and private sectors. This is targeted at minimizing the dominating symptoms and preventing focus of economic power in the hands of a few big industrial houses.
Industrial policy also targets at correcting differences of region in industrial development. It is a well-known fact that some regions in our country are quite developed industrially, like Maharashtra and Gujarat, while others are marked as industrially backward regions, like Bihar and Orissa. It is the job of industrial policy to amend some programs and policies, which will result in the development of industries or industrial growth.
The first industrial policy statement of the Government of India was formed in 1948 and was modified in 1956 in industrial development policy dominated by the public sector till 1991 with some minor modifications and amendments in 1977 and 1980.The year 1991 noticed far reaching changes that were made in the 1956 industrial policy. The new Industrial Policy of July 1991 witnessed the border outline for industrial development at present.