Engineering industries form the backbone for modern industrial development. These industries not only provide machineries for industries but equipment’s for transport, agriculture, mining and construction sectors.
These industries are complex in character and are largely based on modern sophisticated technology and large capital resources. Being labour intensive such industries provide employment to large number of workers. They also produce spread effect by stimulating the growth of ancillary units and small scale units. The range of their products varies from pins, screws, nuts and bolts to industrial machinery, automobiles, rail coaches, aircrafts, ships and transmission towers.
In India engineering industries are the gift of post-Independence period and have been largely developed under the public sector. These industries account for about 28.4 per cent of the production capital in the organised sector, 31 per cent of the value of industrial production, and 29.7 per cent of the total employment in the public sector and about 8 per cent of the total exports of the country. Indian engineering industry has emerged as a great national enterprise. During 1997-98 the country exported 4,982 million US $ worth of engineering goods to foreign countries.
The engineering industry mainly comprises of (a) heavy mechanical engineering, (b) light mechanical engineering, and (c) electrical engineering industry.