New Delhi, Jan 31 (IANS): The initiatives under the Centre's flagship Atmanirbhar Bharat programme were designed to attract investments in sectors of "core competency", the Economic Survey tabled in the Parliament said on Monday.

Besides, structural and procedural reforms, record vaccinations, various PLI schemes were some other ways and means to attract investments in such sectors and in cutting edge technology.

The Centre had announced several production-linked incentives for over 10 key sectors.

Introduction of the PLI schemes was intended to encourage the scaling up of industries that are strategic in nature or are technology intensive. The objective behind is to create the capacity to integrate with the global value chains.

"Make-in-India programme to boost domestic manufacturing capacity, reduction of corporate tax rate, etc and steps to improve operational efficiency have helped the industrial sector to keep up its ante," the Survey said.

Besides, the industrial sector has started to recover steadily. The Survey, attributing the National Statistical Office, said the sector is likely to grow at 11.8 per cent in FY22.

"The performance of the Index of Industrial Production while a little subdued at 1.4 per cent in November 2021 vis a vis the same month in the previous year must be viewed along with growth of 17.4 per cent in April-November 2021 as compared to -15.3 per cent in the corresponding period of the last year. Most components of IIP have recovered to the pre-lockdown level," the Survey further said.

For the transformation of the industrial sector, the Centre has charted out a comprehensive programme with special emphasis on supply side measures -- the reforms address long known bottlenecks of insufficient infrastructure, tardy business processes and labour market reforms.

Further, several measures have been taken to reduce transaction costs especially for the small and medium enterprises as well as facilitate inflow of capital, technology and international best practices into the industries.

Lastly, the latest recovery of the industrial sector, positive business expectations propelled by extensive reforms and improved consumer demand suggested that further improvements in performance can be expected, it added.