India has established a strong and diversified manufacturing base for production of a wide variety of basic and capital goods to meet the requirements of various sectors including heavy electrical, power generation and transmission, process equipment, automobiles, ships, aircrafts, mining, chemicals, petroleum etc.

The industrial sector recorded a healthy growth of 10.3% ( in terms of the Index of Industrial Production) during April-Oct (2006-07), as compared to 8.6 percent achieved during the corresponding period last year. Capital goods sector, which posted a robust growth of 16.9 per cent in 2005-06, has maintained its growth momentum during the current year as well. According to the Index of Industrial Production, capital goods sector posted a growth of 15.0 per cent during April-Oct (2006-07).

The Department of Heavy Industry (DHI) , in the Ministry of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises, is the nodal authority in India for promoting the growth of the heavy industries. The department is concerned with the development of the heavy engineering industry, machine tool industry, heavy electrical industry, industrial machinery and auto-industry. It deals with 19 industrial sub-sectors, out of which the major ones include:-

• Boilers:- domestic industry has the capacity to meet the indigenous demand for boilers. It has the capacity to manufacture boilers with super critical parameters upto 1,000 MW unit size. Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) is the largest manufacturer of boilers in the country with more than 60 % share. Expansions are underway to cope up with the country's growth plans.
  
• Cement Machinery:- there are 18 units in the organized sector for the manufacture of complete cement plant machinery. With an installed capacity of around Rs. 600 crore/annum, the industry is fully capable of meeting the domestic demand. Modern cement plants are designed for zero downtime, high product quality and better output with minimum energy consumed per unit of cement production.
  
• Dairy Machinery:- there are 16 units in the organized sector, both in private and public sector, manufacturing dairy machinery equipments such as evaporators, milk refrigerators and storage tanks, milk and cream deodorizers, centrifuges, clarifiers, agitators, homogenisers, spray dryers and heat exchangers.
  
• Electrical Furnace:- are used in metallurgical and engineering industries like forging and foundry, machine tools, automobiles, etc. Domestically, adequate capacity for production of these products has been established.
  
• Material Handling Equipment:- there are 50 units in the organised sector for the manufacture of material handling equipment. Besides, there are number of units operating in the small-scale sector. The industry is self sufficient in meeting domestic demand and is also capable of meeting the global competition.
  
• Metallurgical Machinery:- includes equipment for mineral beneficiation, ore dressing, size reduction, steel plant equipments, foundry equipments and furnaces. Presently, there are 39 units in the organized sector engaged in the manufacture of various types of metallurgical machinery.
  
• Mining Machinery:- majority of the requirement for the mining industry is being met by the indigenous manufacturers. Presently, there are 32 manufacturers in the organized sector both in public and private sector for underground and surface mining equipment of various types. Out of these, 17 units manufacture underground mining equipment.
  
• Oil Field Equipment:- domestic production covers mainly the on-shore drilling equipment. Under offshore drilling only offshore platforms and some other technological structures are being produced locally. The major producers of these equipments are BHEL, Hindustan Shipyard, Mazagaon Dock and Larsen & Toubro. Since the opening up of the petroleum industry in India there is an increase in demand for the oil field and related equipments.
  
• Rubber Machinery:- the range of equipments manufactured in the country includes inter-mixer, tyre curing presses, tube splicers, bladder curing presses, tyre moulds, tyre building machines, turnet servicer, bias cutters, rubber injection moulding machine, bead wires, etc. There are at present 19 units in the organized sector for the manufacture of rubber machinery, mainly required for tyre or tube industry.
  
• Sugar Machinery:- domestic manufacturers occupy predominant position in the global scenario and are capable of manufacturing from concept to commissioning stage sugar plants of latest design for a capacity upto 10,000 TCD (tons crushing per day).
  
• Turbines & Generator sets:- capacity established for the manufacture of various kinds of turbines such as steam & hydro turbines including industrial turbines is more than 7000 MW per annum. Apart from BHEL, there are units in the private sector engaged in the manufacturing of steam and hydro turbines for power generation and industrial use.
  
• Machine Tools:- domestic industry has established a sound base and there are around 160 machine tool manufacturers in the organized sector as also around 400 units in the small ancillary sector. It is also in a position to export general purpose and standard machine tools to industrially advanced countries. The machine tools manufactured meet the international standard of quality/precision and reliability. A number of collaborations have also been approved for bringing in the latest technology in this field.
  
• Switchgear and Control Gear:- domestically, the entire range of circuit breakers including bulk oil, minimum oil, air blast, vacuum, etc are being manufactured. The range of products so produced cover the voltage range of 240V to 800KV and includes switchgear, control gear, air circuit breakers, switches, rewireable fuses and HRC fuses with their respective fuse bases, holders and starters etc. The industry is competitive in the field of design and engineering as the skill sets available in the country are relatively less expensive.
  
• Shunting Locomotives:- for the localized and internal transport facilities are used in railways, steel plants, thermal power plants, etc. Jhansi Unit of BHEL, among others, is manufacturing such locomotives. BHEL manufactures complete rolling stock i.e. electric locomotives upto 5000 HP, diesel electric locomotives from 350 HP to 3100 HP for both mainline and shunting duty applications. Most of the trains on Indian railways, whether electric or diesel powered are equipped with BHEL's traction with conventional DC drives and state of the art AC drives.
  
• Transformers:- domestic transformers industry is well established with capability to provide state of art equipments. The industry has the capacity to manufacture whole range of power and distribution transformers. Special types of transformers required for furnaces, rectifiers, electric traction, etc and series and shunt reactors as well as HVDC transmission upto 500 kV are also being manufactured in the country.
  
• Textile Machinery:- there are over 600 units engaged in the manufacture of textile machineries; their components; accessories and spares. Out of these, about 100 units are manufacturing the complete textile machinery. The range includes textile machinery required for sorting, cording, processing of yarns/ fabrics and weaving.