Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal on Saturday, 23 May 2026 announced that the Modi Government is inviting all States and Union Territories to apply for the development of world-class industrial parks under the BHAVYA scheme, signalling a fresh push to expand India's manufacturing infrastructure through a federal partnership model.

Context

Goyal's post, shared on X, states plainly: 'The Modi Government invites the States and Union Territories to apply for the development of a world-class industrial park under the BHAVYA scheme.' The announcement positions the scheme as a centrally driven initiative that places implementation responsibility squarely on state and UT administrations, which must submit applications to be considered for selection.

The call to states follows a well-established federal model in Indian industrial policy, where the Centre designs and funds the framework while state governments contribute land, local approvals, and on-ground coordination. This division of labour has been a defining feature of major manufacturing programmes since 2014.

Policy Backdrop

The BHAVYA scheme sits within a broader policy architecture that the Modi Government has built over more than a decade. The Make in India initiative, launched in September 2014, first signalled India's ambition to become a global manufacturing hub, while the National Industrial Corridor Development Programme, approved in 2014-15, introduced the concept of integrated industrial parks with plug-and-play infrastructure.

The PM Gati Shakti National Master Plan, launched in 2021, added a logistics coordination layer, ensuring that new industrial zones are linked to roads, railways, ports, and airports through a unified planning framework. The Industrial Park Rating System, introduced in 2018, further standardised quality benchmarks for such parks. BHAVYA, as announced, appears to extend this lineage by inviting states to compete for central support in building next-generation facilities.

Stakeholders and Impact

State governments and Union Territory administrations are the immediate stakeholders, as they must initiate the application process. For states with available land banks and investor-ready ecosystems, the scheme offers an opportunity to attract domestic and foreign manufacturing investment under a centrally validated brand.

Manufacturing investors — both domestic conglomerates and multinational corporations scouting for production bases in India — stand to benefit from industrial parks that meet world-class infrastructure standards. Plug-and-play parks reduce the time and cost of setting up operations, a persistent concern for investors comparing India with competing destinations in Southeast Asia.

What's Next

The immediate milestones to watch are the publication of detailed eligibility norms and selection criteria, application deadlines for states and UTs, and any follow-up cabinet approvals or budget allocations that formalise the scheme's funding pattern. The pace at which states respond to the invitation will also indicate how much political and administrative appetite exists at the sub-national level for this model of industrial development.

If the scheme gains traction, it could add a significant number of investment-ready industrial clusters to India's manufacturing map, reinforcing the country's pitch to global supply chains looking to diversify beyond China in the coming years.